Police dismantle cell working for Sinaloa cartel

Police officer among six who were arrested

Por: Omar Millán 11 Enero 2012 @ 5:50 am
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TIJUANA – A series of police operations resulted in the dismantling of a criminal cell working for the Sinaloa cartel as well as the confiscation of nearly 500 pounds of marijuana.

The Baja California police department (known as PEP) announced Tuesday that its agents had arrested six suspects, among them Tijuana municipal police officer Ricardo Rueda Izquierdo, whom the department linked to a group of drug dealers working for the alleged smuggler Alfredo Arteaga González.

State and military authorities have identified Arteaga, alias “El Aquiles,” as the drug lieutenant behind the large loads of marijuana recently confiscated and the transborder drug tunnels newly discovered who is working for the Sinaloa cartel.

According to PEP, based on intelligence the department gathered, its agents carried out the first operation Monday night in the beach community of Playas de Tijuana, which led them to make a series of arrests.

In Costero Boulevard, in the Jardines Section, police arrested Rueda Izquierdo, 38, and Filiberto de los Santos Llaven, 31, who allegedly were carrying three bags of marijuana.

The department said the operation continued and agents went to another street in the beachside neighborhood, where they intercepted a Ford Mustang, and arrested its passengers, identified as Miguel Ángel Gaxiola Páez, 36, and Maribel Mora Meza, 37.

They were carrying marijuana and agents found 11 packages of the same drug in the rear seat and four others in the trunk, the department said.

The agents then went to Mediterránea street in the eastern Tijuana neighborhood of Río Tercera Etapa, where they observed a Jeep Cherokee with the trunk open and two men holding packages.

The suspects, seeing the agents, dumped the packages and ran inside a house. Police chased them and arrested the two, identified as Alfredo Damián Enríquez Sermeño, 24, and María de Jesús Castañeda García, 33.

Agents found 36 packages with marijuana in the house, and 35 more inside the Cherokee, the department said.

They also found a GMC Envoy with Baja California plates that had been reported stolen in Tijuana in September.

According to the PEP, one of the suspects, Rueda Izquierdo, said he was an active duty officer in the city’s police department, and that his main job in the criminal cell was to provide protection to its members.

Agents seized a total of 471 pounds of marijuana, which had an estimated street value of $648,000, the department said.

omar.millan@sandiegored.com

Police dismantle cell working for Sinaloa cartel - Noticias - SanDiegoRed