100-plus jailed in El Paso-area raids

By Daniel Borunda \ El Paso Times
Posted: 02/26/2011 12:00:00 AM MST

More than 100 people were arrested in the El Paso region in a crackdown on Mexican drug cartels in response to the killing of an ICE agent last week in Mexico, officials said Friday evening.

In Chihuahua City, authorities announced that a high-ranking member of the Juárez drug cartel was killed in a shootout with federal police earlier this week.

U.S. officials said 104 people were arrested as of Friday in the El Paso division of the DEA, which covers West Texas and New Mexico. The division has offices in El Paso, Las Cruces, Albuquerque, Midland and Alpine.

Agents seized 19 firearms as well as an undisclosed amounts of cash and cocaine, heroin and marijuana.

Names and charges were not released because multiple investigations continue, officials said.

Officials would not say which cartels the suspects are associated with or which types of weapons were seized. Officials also did not say when the suspects would be in court to face the charges and go through the judicial system.

The crackdown in El Paso is linked to a national multi-agency response in retaliation for the death of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi on Feb. 15.

Zapata and Special Agent Victor Avila Jr. of El Paso were allegedly attacked by members of the Zetas drug cartel, but U.S. agents are going after multiple drug-trafficking organizations. Avila is recovering after being shot in a leg.

El Pasoans reported

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