Thread: Billion dollar drug ring busted in AZ linked to Sinola Carte

70 members of 'billion-dollar' drug gang arrested, official says

'Jaw-dropping' amount of contraband seized; alleged drug smugglers thought to have close ties to violent Mexican cartel

Law enforcement officials in Arizona seized thousands of pounds of narcotics and arrested at least 70 suspected drug smugglers with apparent ties to a violent drug cartel in Mexico, an official involved with the investigation in the U.S. Southwest told Reuters.

..The operation, which included three raids conducted jointly by local, state, and federal officials over 17 months, led to the arrests of Mexican and American nationals working with a notorious drug cartel based in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Further details of the operation will be released at a press conference at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration field office in Phoenix on Monday.

Authorities confiscated drugs, money, weapons, ammunition, and bullet-proof vests, cracking a "sophisticated network" of international drug smuggling in one of the largest such operations conducted in the Southwestern United States, the official said on Sunday.

Drugs were smuggled from Mexico into Arizona by car, plane, on foot, and through tunnels.

"This is one of the more substantial drug-smuggling operations going on right now. This is a billion-dollar drug trade organization linked to the cartel," the official said.

The cartel is headquartered in the northwestern state of Sinaloa on Mexico's Pacific coast, an area home to big marijuana and opium poppy plantations and considered the cradle of Mexican narcotics trafficking since the 1960s.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed in drug-related violence since Mexican President Felipe Calderon launched his military campaign against the cartels after he took office in late 2006.

'Jaw-dropping'
The raids were overseen by the DEA, Arizona state officials, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The official said the operation will shed light on elaborate drug smuggling into the United States and said the contraband confiscated in the raids was "jaw-dropping."

Officials captured some of the key players in the smuggling operation, the source said, adding that the suspects will be prosecuted at the state level.

The official said law enforcement officials are still looking for dozens of people in connection with the operation.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45100583/ns ... nd_courts/

Authorities: major trafficking ring busted

Arizona officials are getting ready to announce a major bust involving a powerful drug cartel.

Authorities say on Monday, they will provide details of what they're calling one of the biggest narcotics trafficking rings ever broken up in Arizona.

The 17-month investigation by local, state and federal officials led to raids in the Phoenix area and Pinal County on Thursday.

Officials say the ring is linked to the Sinaloa Drug Cartel.

The ring reportedly smuggled millions of dollars in drugs each month through Arizona.

Last week’s raids reportedly involved the same ring as two other previous busts. One of those ended with the arrest of 17 drug smugglers and the seizure of 935 pounds of marijuana.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, Arizona Attorney General's Office and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office plan a press conference Monday morning in Phoenix.
http://www.kyma.com/slp.php?idN=5756&cat=News

Arizona Busts Billion Dollar Drug Ring Tied To Mexican Cartels




Arizona authorities broke up an alleged Mexican drug cartel distribution network, arresting dozens of smugglers responsible for bringing over $33 million worth of drugs through the state's western desert every month, officials said Monday.

The ring is believed be tied to the Sinaloa cartel — Mexico's most powerful — and responsible for smuggling more than 3.3 million pounds of marijuana, 20,000 pounds of cocaine and 10,000 pounds of heroin into the U.S. through Arizona over the past five years, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Their efforts in that time generated an estimated $2 billion, according to ICE.

ICE's Homeland Security Investigations and the Pinal County Sheriff's Office arrested 22 suspected smugglers tied to the ring on Thursday, the latest of three busts they say have brought it down following a 17-month investigation dubbed "Operation Pipeline Express."

Arizona authorities dismantled an alleged Sinaloa cartel distribution network, responsible for smuggling over 20,000 pounds of cocaine and 10,000 pounds of heroin into the U.S.

In the three busts combined, the agencies have arrested 76 suspected smugglers and seized more than 61,000 pounds of pot, about 160 pounds of heroin, about 210 pounds of cocaine, nearly $760,000 in cash, and 108 weapons, including assault rifles and shotguns. The other busts came in mid-September and mid-October.

Although the agencies released some information about Thursday's bust last week, they held back most of their information for a Monday news conference in which they displayed dozens of guns and hundreds of pounds of pot seized for members of the media.

The smuggling ring operated by using backpackers and vehicles to move drugs from the border to a network of so-called stash houses in the Phoenix area. The drugs were then sold to distributors from states across the country.

Authorities say the ring virtually monopolized smuggling routes along an 80-mile section of the Arizona-Mexico border from Yuma to just east of the small Tohono O'odham Nation town of Sells.

This is how you attack international organized crime and transnational criminal organizations, by focusing on the people, the leadership and the illicit pathways that they exploit.

Some of the officials at the news conference in Phoenix lauded the bust as a significant blow to the Sinaloa cartel, while others acknowledged that it affects only a portion of the cartel's massive operation, which still has cells operating in the state.

"It's a body blow but it doesn't knock them out by any sense of the imagination," Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeau said. "This literally is just a fraction of what's going on."

It's only a matter of time before either the Sinaloa cartel or another operation reclaims the area affected by the bust, said Matthew Allen, ICE's special agent in charge for Arizona.

"This is not a closing chapter in this book," he said. "We have every expectation that command and control in Mexico is working to re-establish their presence, and it's our job to go after them."

Authorities began investigating the smuggling ring in June 2010, when a Pinal County sheriff's deputy stopped two smugglers hauling 1,500 pounds of pot in Stanfield, about 50 miles south of Phoenix. At least one of the smugglers gave investigators detailed information about the ring.

Allen said that those arrested range from low-level drug haulers and scouts to those who were in command.

"This is how you attack international organized crime and transnational criminal organizations, by focusing on the people, the leadership and the illicit pathways that they exploit," he said. "Our goal is to take them out by their roots."

The case is a reminder of how important it is for the federal government to gain operational control over the border, Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said.

"I find it completely unacceptable that Arizona neighborhoods are treated as a trading floor for narcotics," Horne said. "Children are not safe when their homes are located near the other homes that are used as distribution centers for drugs. Our highways are not safe when criminal organizations battle each other, sometimes violently and at risk to innocent bystanders, for control of loads of drugs being transported in vehicles."

Authorities need to send a message to cartel leaders through continued busts, Babeau said.

"We have to stand up to bring the fight to the cartels to say, 'This is America. You're not bringing your violence, you're not bringing your drugs and your trash to our country. We're going to stop you,'" he said.

Based on reporting by the Associated Press.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2 ... z1cTdRioor

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