Updated 04/06/2010 11:09 AM

Changing face of drug cartels in Mexico could affect Austin
By: Jessica Sondgeroth

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Federal officials said Austin has become of growing importance to drug cartels as a transit center.

The City of Austin Public Safety Commission called upon local leaders of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Austin Police Department to update the city regarding concerns about how the changing dynamics of the drug war in Mexico is affecting the Austin area.

"I don’t know if we can actually articulate that there’s more cocaine flowing into Austin than there was five years ago," DEA agent Greg Thrash said. "We base a lot of this on intelligence; we base it on seizures, but what we have seen is Austin being increasingly used as a city of importance…as a transit, as a distribution hub."

That categorization from the Office of National Drug Control Policy qualifies the city and Travis County for more federal money to help combat drug-trafficking in the area.

The designation is not unique, however. Most cities that are not directly on the border but near the border qualify as second-tier cities, or "high-intensity drug-trafficking areas."

"Politics come into play, with respect to different funding mechanisms, as we know," Thrash said. "When I say political, it’s political in the sense that for these decisions to be made, you need a lot of your local politicians to support certain initiatives."

So, while the designation doesn't necessarily mean Austin is under a grave threat, authorities said they have no plans to keep their guard down.

APD Commander Chris Noble said Austin currently has an estimated 2,000 gang members, a 20 percent increase from 2008. Still, many of the crimes committed in Austin are low-level crimes by street gang members, not necessarily members of the drug cartels.

Rather, Thrash said some of those recently arrested in connection to the drug cartel La Familia lived seemingly normal lives in middle-class homes, some being very upscale.

"You never would have dreamed that those individuals were [involved], so that's what you see," Thrash said.

Federal authorities arrested four members of La Familia in Pflugerville last October. Law enforcement authorities seized approximately 30 kilograms of cocaine, two handguns and approximately $350,000 from the suspects.

Thrash said primarily three drug cartels operate in Austin, including La Familia, the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Two those cartels have recently combined forces against the other, resulting in an escalation of violence in Mexico. Mexico's annual death toll from the drug war has risen from 1,080 in 2001 to 6,687 in 2009.

"We had six cartels, if you want to call them cartels, in Mexico. What we're seeing now is they're combining, and they're warring amongst one another," Thrash said.

Los Zetas was previously the enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, but became increasingly more powerful and broke away as recently as January.

Thrash said La Familia, the Gulf Cartel and Sinaloa have combined forces against Los Zetas. Thrash said according to authorities in Mexico, the cartels are using military grade munitions from China and Russia, as well as American rifles and weapons first sold to other governments and resold to the cartels.

Authorities at the meeting emphasized they could not speak to future projections about whether or not the conflict will trickle into turf wars in the United States, and specifically Austin.

The difficulty in tracking changing technologies and unpredictable relationships between the drug cartels make it difficult for law enforcement to predict if and when the violence will affect cities such as Austin.

"What is Austin being used for? We're being used for two things: commanding control and transit and distribution hub. We know that through our investigations and through actual empirical data," Thrash said.

He compared the operation to an "army of ants," saying 10 to 30 kilograms of narcotics come across the border day after day. They come in not only by car but by 18-wheelers and sometimes through trucking companies in "some of the most ingenious ways you can imagine," he said.

"The amounts are staggering," Thrash said. "We're really not sure how much money is going across the border. Shannon O'Neil wrote an article for ‘Foreign Affairs,’ and it's estimated at anywhere from $15 to $25 billion a year in U.S. currency is flowing across the border. It's an amazing amount of money leaving the U.S. economy."

Thrash said federal, state and local officials are working together to gather intelligence and "be proactive" in the event that the situation between drug cartels in Austin escalates.

"I've personally never seen a more collaborative group of people at all different levels working together, sharing resources, sharing intelligence," FBI agent Royce Curtain said. "What that allows us to do is to build the most complete picture of where our most significant threats are."


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