Thread: Probe of Mexican Zetas leads to Chicago arrests

Probe of Mexican Zetas leads to Chicago arrests
Associated Press
Posted: Wednesday, November 16, 2011 8:51 pm

Federal agents have arrested 13 people as part of a probe into the alleged multimillion-dollar shipments of drug money between the Chicago area and Mexico's brutal Zetas cartel, authorities said Wednesday.

The FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration arrested 12 people Tuesday in Chicago and another during a simultaneous raid in Laredo, Texas, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office. Five people of the 20 total indicted in the probe remain at large, another was already in custody and one is hospitalized.

Authorities said they seized more than $12.4 million in cash and approximately 250 kilograms of cocaine last year from Chicago-area safe houses. An additional $480,000 and two kilograms were seized during Tuesday's raids, they said.

U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald said the charges are part of the first federal prosecution in Chicago of defendants with ties to the Zetas cartel, which is believed to be one of Mexico's two dominant drug traffickers. Three people with ties to the Zetas were arrested and two others remain at large, authorities said.

The Zetas, formed by former members of an elite Mexican army unit, are believed to have been behind some of the most ruthless violence in a drug war that's claimed an estimated 35,000 to 40,000 lives.

Among the men who remain at large is Eduardo Trevino, who is accused of directing a network that shipped drug money from Chicago and other American cities to Laredo, where the money could then be moved across the border into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Another defendant still at large, Salvador Estrada, is accused in an indictment of packaging millions of dollars in cash to be driven south by truck drivers.

Two alleged truck drivers, Miguel Arredondo and Vicente Casares, and another defendant linked to the Zetas, Juan Aguirre, are now in custody. Attorney information for the three men was not immediately available.

Jack Riley, Chicago special agent in charge for the DEA, said in a statement that the "influence of Mexican criminal organizations in the wholesale Chicago drug market is apparent."

One expert on the cartel said the Zetas have expanded their reach along the corridors of several interstate highways, including Interstate 35, which runs north from Laredo into the Midwest. Authorities in several other cities have made arrests of people with alleged Zeta ties.

Their influence stretches to thousands of drug dealers and peripheral supporters, said Sam Logan, founder of Southern Pulse, a Latin America intelligence service.

"The word `Zetas' as a criminal brand is in a lot of ways much more powerful than the 500 or so men who actually are Zetas," Logan said. "Of that number, very close to zero are actually active inside the United States."

The odds are slim that federal agents will ever be able to prosecute cartel members such as Trevino believed to be running drug operations, Logan said. Authorities say they believe Trevino to be living in Nuevo Laredo.

"I think it's more likely he'll be killed," Logan said.

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Twenty Defendants, Including Five Allegedly Tied to the Zetas Cartel, Indicted on Federal Narcotics Charges

U.S. Attorney’s Office November 16, 2011
Northern District of Illinois(312) 353-5300

CHICAGO—Twenty defendants are facing federal narcotics charges here, including five alleged members of a Chicago-based cell of the Zetas Mexican drug cartel who were responsible for transporting millions of dollars in drug proceeds between Chicago and Mexico, federal law enforcement officials announced today. A joint investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Federal Bureau of Investigation resulted in the charges, as well as accumulated seizures during 2010 of more than $12.4 million cash and approximately 250 kilograms of cocaine in the Chicago area. An additional $480,000 cash and two kilograms of heroin were seized yesterday.

Federal agents yesterday executed simultaneous arrests in the Chicago area and in Laredo, Tex., of defendants stemming from the multi-jurisdiction investigation of drug-trafficking and the flow of its narcotics proceeds. Twelve of the 20 defendants indicted in Chicago were arrested in Chicago and a 13th in Laredo.

The 20 Chicago defendants were charged in five separate indictments that were returned by a federal grand jury on Nov. 2 and unsealed following the arrests. The 12 Chicago defendants arrested here yesterday appeared in U.S. District Court and remain in federal custody pending detention hearings. Five defendants remain fugitives; one was already in federal custody and another is hospitalized.

Yesterday’s seizures of cash and heroin occurred during the arrests and execution of search warrants at the residence of one defendant in Bellwood and another defendant’s residence in Bolingbrook, as well as a safe deposit box.

All 20 Chicago defendants were charged with various narcotics offenses, including conspiracy to possess and distribute quantities of cocaine and using a telephone to facilitate narcotics trafficking. The five alleged members of the money transportation cell were also charged with conspiracy to transfer narcotics proceeds outside the United States. If convicted, 12 defendants face a mandatory minimum of 10 years to a maximum of life in prison and a $10 million fine, while the remaining eight defendants face a mandatory minimum of 5 years to a maximum of 40 years in prison and a $5 million fine. The money transportation conspiracy carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and fine of twice the value of the money involved. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal statutes and the advisory United States Sentencing Guidelines.

“One indictment in this group signals the first federal prosecution in Chicago of defendants allegedly tied to the Zetas drug-trafficking cartel, and the seizures of cash represented a significant blow to the operation of this alleged money transportation cell,â€