Thread: Obama adds Austin to 'drug hub' list

Obama adds Austin to 'drug hub' list
Local DEA office expanding to fight drug cartels

Updated: Tuesday, 29 Jun 2010, 11:15 PM CDT
Published : Tuesday, 29 Jun 2010, 9:52 PM CDT

* Erin Cargile

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A new name for Austin that has come down from President Obama's office is nothing to brag about. The capitol city has been deemed an official drug hub for illegal Mexican cartels.

It is only a matter of time before it is added to the map on the White House website next to Dallas and Houston. Local Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Greg Thrash said he got the call at the end of March. It is official, Austin is now considered a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA for short.

With the new title comes more federal dollars to create a HIDTA Task Force. An extreme makeover is already underway inside the DEA headquarters in Austin. New cubicles were moved in and set up Monday, and wiring for additional phone lines are hanging out of missing ceiling tiles. Boxes of new computers sit in the front foyer, along with additional black leather rolling chairs.

The man in charge, DEA Agent Greg Thrash, will soon oversee the larger team of investigators that will be comprised of the following local departments:

* Drug Enforcement Administration
* Federal Bureau of Investigation
* U.S Marshals Service
* Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
* Internal Revenue Service
* Texas Department of Public Safety
* Bastrop County Sheriff's Office
* Round Rock Police Department
* Williamson County Sheriff's Office
* Hays County Sheriff's Office
* Georgetown Police Department
* Austin Police Department

Agent Thrash said turf wars are out the window.

"We check our badge at the door," said Thrash. "Everyone comes together as one and we attack what we've got to attack and do our mission."

The mission at hand: disrupting the illegal drug market that has been making its way up from Mexico. Austin sits in prime drug smuggling territory due to its proximity to the border and Laredo.

Last fall Austin was home to the largest drug cartel crackdown in U.S. history that branched out from Hays County, Bastrop and Pflugerville. In November, the Texas Department of Public Safety issued a warning to parents , claiming Mexican cartels were recruiting schoolchildren.

Just last month, federal investigators tapped a man's cell phone and uncovered what they called a scheme to distribute kilos of cocaine to the East Coast via Austin. The 24-year-old was later arrested and charged with shooting and killing two people at a local strip club.

The case is just one example of how curbing the drug problem can cut down on more serious crimes.

"Comes down to quality of life and containing a cancer within the country and that cancer obviously is drug abuse and trafficking," said Thrash.

Austin's new drug designation is not a reason for Agent Thrash to believe the problem has gotten a lot worse.

"I think the problem was here two, three, even four years ago," said Thrash. "It's escalated for obvious reasons because of what's going on in Mexico and along the border, but I think we've exposed it more in the last couple years due to the relationships and the sharing of information."

http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/crime/O...-drug-hub-list

Austin sits in prime drug smuggling territory due to its proximity to the border and Laredo.

. . . and because our government refuses to do anything about the flow of illegals or drugs.

AUSTIN (KXAN) - A new name for Austin that has come down from President Obama's office is nothing to brag about. The capitol city has been deemed an official drug hub for illegal Mexican cartels.

For the first time in my adult life, I'm ashamed of my city. (echo's of Michelle Obama)

as someone born there, i find this utterly disgusting that the city council and mayor have not done more to stop criminal activity like this

Originally Posted by jamesw62

as someone born there, i find this utterly disgusting that the city council and mayor have not done more to stop criminal activity like this

James, I agree, it is disgusting that Austin is recognized as a sanctuary city and accepts crime as a matter of doing business with illegal aliens.

and didnt the council of austin just vote to boycott arizona, too?
im thinking they need to look in their own backyard before they say or do anything against arizona or any other state that wants to enforce immigration laws

I can't believe the elected officials could be that out of touch. Corrupt, yes! 30 to 40 Ford trucks are stolen each month in Austin, and they run to the border and return with drugs and undocumented democrats. They know. And they continue to be a sanctuary city and the city council voted to boycott Arizona. I continue to see numerous Arizona plates on the road in the last few weeks. SB1070 works!


Cartels use Austin as a drug hub, officials say
Recent cases bolster long-held theory about area's role in trafficking.

By Tony Plohetski
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Published: 8:35 p.m. Saturday, April 10, 2010

The houses stretched from Pflugerville to Manor to South Austin, many tucked in middle-class neighborhoods along quiet streets.

When officials started investigating suspects linked to Mexico's notorious Gulf cartel months ago, they soon learned that some of the dozen homes they raided were being used as small distribution centers, where drug traffickers broke large quantities of cocaine into smaller shipments to be funneled to sites north and east.

The investigation, which led to the arrests of 17 people, and a recent similar case — with information from the suspects — bolstered a long-held theory of federal and local law enforcement officials.

For years, authorities have suspected that the Austin area serves as a major drug trafficking hub, a gateway primarily for cocaine and, more recently, methamphetamines that in some instances eventually make it to the streets of cities such as Chicago and New York.

"I'm not so sure it hasn't always been here, but our investigations are just becoming better, and we are exposing things more," said Greg Thrash, resident agent in charge of the Austin office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Officials said it is difficult to pinpoint when Austin became a focal distribution point — cartels use anything from cars and trucks to unwitting freight companies to ship the drugs — although they said the overall amount moving through the city via coordinated cartels has increased. Where 2 pounds of cocaine was once considered a big bust, seizures now might be 12 or 15 pounds.

Knowing Austin's link in the trafficking chain, they said, will probably help them more aggressively target cartel operatives, potentially curbing the amount of drugs flowing through the city, and possibly the U.S.

Locally, authorities said the trafficking brings with it other crimes, including assaults and robberies, which are commonly linked to the drug trade.

Austin police Cmdr. Chris Noble , who supervises the department's organized crime division, said detectives have learned that at least one Austin homicide within the past three years was cartel-related, but he declined to provide specifics.

The case remains unsolved, and police said that publicly discussing it could jeopardize the investigation.

Police said they suspect that a portion of the drugs that arrive in Austin remains in the city, spilling into neighborhoods for street-level dealing.

"Those drugs aren't only getting broken down into smaller quantities, but it provides a larger inventory of drugs right here in Central Texas," Assistant Police Chief Sean Mannix said.

Last week, members of Austin's Public Safety Commission, which provides information to City Council members about concerns that may require more city money or officers, received a briefing from federal, state and local law enforcement officials about Mexican cartel drug trafficking in Austin.

Mannix said the amount of Austin police resources dedicated to responding to cartel activity has remained steady in recent years. However, he said federal and local authorities now work together more closely.

Commission Chairman Michael Lauderdale, a professor in the school of social work at the University of Texas, said he was concerned to learn of Austin's role in the national drug trade.

"If it's true ... I can't think of a more grave public safety concern that we could encounter," he said. "If we are asleep at the wheel, we could have a very serious problem on our hands."

Officials said they hope greater access to federal dollars to help combat drug trafficking will help their efforts. This month, the office of National Drug Control Policy at the White House announced that Travis County has received a designation as a high-intensity drug trafficking area.

Thrash said most major U.S. cities have received the label, which officials said goes to places shown to be "a significant area of illegal drug production, manufacturing, importation and distribution."

Thrash said that based on intelligence his agency has, three major Mexican cartels — the Gulf cartel, Los Zetas and La Familia — have national transit lines that flow through Austin.

Each cartel is known for violence, using beheadings in some instances to intimidate members of rival cartels. Apart from the single homicide, police said they have not seen that kind of cartel activity in Austin.

Authorities said Austin provides a location that is along one of the nation's busiest interstate highways and gives operatives an ideal place to call home. Local distribution efforts are often handled by midlevel operatives, who report to cartel heads in Mexico.

"They are looking for a decent place to live even though they are in an illegal business," Mannix said. "These guys aren't living in shacks. The houses we are hitting are decent houses in decent neighborhoods."

According to county records, houses targeted in a recent operation ranged in appraisals from $100,000 to $200,000.

Thrash said agency intelligence indicates that drugs are often shipped in large quantities from Guatemala and Mexico and smuggled across the border to places such as McAllen and Laredo. There, the shipments are broken down into smaller quantities, ensuring that even if police seize a load, the entire inventory isn't lost.

"It is kind of a divestiture," Thrash said.

Officials said shipments are often made smaller again when they arrive at a second stop, such as Austin or San Antonio, before being shipped again.

Authorities said they began to solidify their theory that Austin was being used as a transit hub as part of an investigation that culminated in October.

That effort, called Operation Coronado, targeted La Familia and resulted in 1,186 arrests in 35 cities nationally. Four of the arrests were in Austin and Pflugerville.

Officials said Austin had not previously been identified as a distribution point for the cartel, although Dallas and Houston had.

They said Austin served as a national shipping hub for La Familia, formed in the 1980s and headquartered in the Mexican state of Michoacán. Investigators said the cartel shipped drugs from Austin to Florida, North Carolina and Iowa in overnight parcels.

Cases against the suspected operatives are pending in federal court.

Thrash said their theory was bolstered last month with the arrests of 17 suspects accused of being operatives of the Gulf cartel, who also are awaiting trial. That six-year joint law enforcement effort also led to the seizure of about 31 pounds of cocaine, $350,000 to $450,000 in cash and other assets.

Officials said the inquiry began in 2004 after officials seized about 6 pounds of cocaine in a shipping package. The operation investigated the movement of drugs and money through Mexico, Austin, Dallas and Birmingham, Ala., they said.

Agents said they also found more than a dozen homes where operatives lived or where drugs were stashed until they were moved onward.

Officials from several agencies, including Austin police, the DEA and the FBI, said they have begun banding together more aggressively in recent months, armed with more knowledge about the trade.

They said they could not discuss future investigations.

"It's like any other endeavor," Thrash said. "The more you know about your industry or your business, the better you are going to be at it. The more educated we are on what our issues are here in Austin, the better we are able to confront it."

tplohetski@statesman.com; 445-3605
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