Informant for DEA exposes drug underworld
By DANE SCHILLER Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle
June 6, 2009, 7:47PM


When South Houston police pulled over a gold Chevy Malibu for speeding on a summer afternoon in 2005, it marked the beginning of the end for at least 68 drug traffickers who over the next four years would be chased and charged with handling thousands of pounds of cocaine and millions of dollars for Mexican drug cartels.

From that single traffic stop emerged a portrait of drug dealing and money laundering, murder and kidnapping, in which Houston was its central character — the trampoline from which rampant chaos and criminality sprang, records show. It also helped unravel the secret lives of cartel workers who blended in as they went about the business of pumping drugs into the United States, and profits back into Mexico.

The driver became a government informant in exchange for leniency on unrelated criminal charges. His cooperation led to a major investigation in Houston, Operation Three Stars. The informant’s identity remains a Drug Enforcement Administration secret, even as in late May five defendants from the last indictment in the investigation were sentenced to prison.

“It always comes back to the drugs,â€