Thread: Diverse picture of alleged drug runners emerges in courtroom

Diverse picture of alleged drug runners emerges in courtrooms
By DANE SCHILLER
Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle
July 7, 2010, 10:47PM


Resources Read the indictment against the defendants One accused drug dealer was a male stripper.

Another lives in the suburbs and is the hot-tempered daughter of prison guards.

There is a married Pakistani man with a string of girlfriends. An undocumented Mexican with a purple Hummer who allegedly exploited his contacts in the gay community. And a rural wife who has been looking for her ex-con white supremacist husband who went missing and is presumed dead.

As some of at least 28 people accused of partaking in a machine that pumped millions of dollars in drugs from a Mexican cartel to Houston and the surrounding area appeared in federal courtrooms over the past nine days, so too did the unseemly and diverse picture of this city's alleged drug runners and sellers.

What brought them together, authorities contend, is not only an underground pipeline for cocaine and heroin, but exceptionally pure methamphetamine that went for $24,000 a pound. That's more than gold.

Records and court testimony show the defendants arrested include people from Mexico, Honduras, Colombia, Pakistan, Israel, Houston, Beaumont and elsewhere. Some players met only by phone.

Others are linked by blood, marriage or friendship — or know each other so intimately that federal agents sometimes had to suddenly stop secretly monitoring phone calls, as drug-driven appetites shifted conversation from selling narcotics to exploring sexual fantasies.

To stay on the line would violate privacy as the talk was not about alleged crimes.

'Can't stay away from it'
Agents are still connecting dots in a case could expand.

"The users can't stay away from it, and the dealers make so much money," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Englade. "As long as it is so pure, they don't care where they get it from."

More revelations are expected in coming months as defendants either confess to crimes in plea agreements or face accusers at trial.

Busting a group moving a few pounds of methamphetamine is significant. But authorities were stunned to find 25 pounds stuffed in a home's air vent.

And that, authorities contend, is a small slice of what has been at play as many alleged conspirators are part of a family that has been dealing for years and is connected to Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel.

Other defendants lived on the fringes of big-time dealing and were minor players, authorities said.

"I have seen nothing to indicate it is a uniform, typical conspiracy group," said attorney Jim Lindeman. "So many of the conspirators seem to be in very minor roles, if they are proved to be conspirators at all."

Outside a court hearing in Beaumont, spouses and family fretted about how their loved ones could possibly be tied to a cartel.

They were as much a cross section of society as the defendants themselves. A woman from Colombia looked like she stepped off a magazine cover. A burly Texan wore coveralls.

A 32-year-old defendant briefly raised her cuffed and shackled hands to wave at parents as she was led from the courtroom.

They later talked of getting her help with addiction.

Every defendant was indicted on the same charge: conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute narcotics.

They face 10 years to life in prison.

New mom gets lecture
One 24-year-old woman has had several minor brushes with the law, including fights with her sister and mother. Adding to her woes, she has a 7-week-old daughter with a man also facing charges.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Keith Giblin sternly counseled her.

"This baby needs a mother at home, and you need to be working with your attorney to figure a way out of this jam," he said. "I don't know what you have gotten yourself into, but this might be a turning point in your life."

A federal agent testified about playing pool as deals were cut, and how the woman weighed drugs, counted money and cursed about having her gun stolen.

"It was obvious it was not her first time, she was very comfortable," Drug Enforcement Administration agent John Schwartz said.

Yet another defendant was in the news just weeks ago, as she pleaded for help finding her husband, who authorities said is part of the Aryan Circle, a spin off of the Aryan Brotherhood gang.

Joshua Parrott's pickup was found near a convenience store in Vidor, said Sgt. Chad Hogan of the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

"If he were alive we would have gotten word or heard something," Hogan said. "He had a few enemies. We could not confirm or disprove he had stiffed the Bandidos (gang) on some dope."

dane.schiller@chron.com

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/met ... 98438.html

Anti illegal, pro american activists along the border states should be showing up at court rooms with cameras as often as possible to document as many criminal illegals as possible. Thats good amatuer vollunteer journalism for you. I would love to see more youtube videos of them.

The more cameras anywhere along the border really the better