Tempe drug bust leads to indictments of 130 people

Megan Boehnke -
Dec. 16, 2009 06:22 PM
The Arizona Republic .

An extensive drug distribution organization with ties to the Sinaloa drug cartel in Mexico has been wiped out by police in a yearlong investigation that stretched across every city in the Valley.

Tempe police have called it the biggest bust in their city and one of the most extensive ever in the county. Investigators arrested 130 people across the organization — including 30 to 40 high level dealers with connections to the cartel, said Commander Kim Hale. The rest were foot soldiers in a widespread network that pushed drugs all the way to California, New Mexico, Colorado and Nebraska.

"From the smaller dealers, we dismantled them all the way back to Mexico," Hale said. "But this family was only one of about 10 or 12 we know of who were supplying here. We got a peek behind the curtain."
The Drug Enforcement Agency will pass along any intelligence the investigators gather on the cartel to Mexican authorities, and as they shore up this case, will also begin combing reports and intelligence to look for new investigative leads for future cases.

Police waited until Wednesday to announce the bust to allow time for a Maricopa County grand jury to bring indictments against all the defendants, Hale said. There are a few suspects police are trying to track down, who fled to Mexico or other places.

In this investigation, which included strategic arrests on small groups of people, police seized $5.8 million in methamphetamine and cocaine, 20 handguns and five assault rifles. Also seized were 35 vehicles and $1.5 million in cash. Authorities served 16 search warrants, discovering a meth lab in north Tempe and a "super lab" in Phoenix that had 60 pounds of meth waiting to be parceled inside the house.

One of the top dealers was Rafael Mondragon, who occasionally referred to himself as "Crystal Dragon," was an aspiring musician. The Mondragon family has been in the area, dealing drugs, since the late 1980s.

Along the way, a driver, Armando Cota, was shot and left for dead when he made a delivery at one Tempe location six months ago. He had surgeries and therapy before recovering and returning to the organization to later be arrested in the sting, Hale said.

Police also removed four small children from three families throughout the course of the investigation, including a newborn taken from her mother in the hospital and a 1-year-old that already had an open CPS investigation. Two other small children, ages 2 and 4, who were removed when police served a search warrant on the family's home. Investigators found meth in the children's system, coating their toys and in the vents throughout the home.

All the parents will are charged with child endangerment, a class 2 felony.

The entire operation began when a patrol officer took complaints at a house in the 3000 block of S. College Street in Tempe. Neighbors complained of odd smells coming from the home and suspicious behavior. The officer noticed people coming and going frequently. He passed the information to the detective bureau, which began to mine the organization, quickly realizing how extensive the operation was. Before long, undercover agents had infiltrated the organization. It started as a family business with the Mondragon family, but eventually branched out into three separate groups: the Pecos, Roman and Franco organizations, residing mostly in Tempe and Phoenix. All three were taken down in the operation.

Police busted one meth lab in north Tempe, near Scottsdale and Tempe Drive, and the "super lab" near 61st Avenue and Camelback in Phoenix.

The super lab, Hale said, is one of only about three ever discovered in Arizona. Most are in Mexico where the labs are used as businesses, churning out dozens of pounds of methamphetamine. Super labs account for about 80 percent of the methamphetamine on the streets, Hale said.

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