Arizona AG: Bales of pot brought in on backpacks
47 commentsby JJ Hensley - Oct. 26, 2009 12:09 PM

A coalition of local, state and national law enforcement agencies announced the dismantling of a drug-smuggling ring that was bringing bales of marijuana through the Arizona desert in backpacks carrying 40 to 100 pounds of pot.

The drug-transportation organization operated as a distribution ring in Pinal County with couriers walking the pot across through the Tohono O'odham Reservation, which straddles the U.S. border with Mexico, and to a series of stash houses that were raided early in the morning on Oct. 14.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said the ring preyed on young people to smuggle drugs and were a threat to the communities where the ringleaders were entrenched.


The early morning raids took police to seven different houses in Pinal County, including three in Casa Grande, one business in Arizona City, one house in Tempe and one in Phoenix, all of which were connected to the drug ring, Babeu said.

The raids netted 13 arrests, more than $400,000 in cash, nearly 4,000 pounds of marijuana, 21 cars and trucks and some weapons, according to Attorney General Terry Goddard's office.

Sheriff's deputies encountered the first piece of the organization during a December traffic stop where they found more than $200,000 cash in a search of the car. The Sheriff's Office ultimately involved the Drug Enforcement Agency, SWAT teams from Valley police departments and the Department of Public Safety and the Attorney General's Office during the course of the eight-month investigation.

By the time the drug-distribution ring was shut down earlier this month, authorities estimate that it was operating for three years and bringing as much as 60,000 pounds of pot into Arizona each year, largely in small quantities on the backs of smugglers.

The distribution ring, allegedly headed by Arizona City resident Roberto Hernandez, 38, coordinated with a number of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations to move the marijuana into Arizona, Goddard said.

Elizabeth Kempshall , the special agent in charge of the Phoenix DEA office, said dismantling an entire distribution ring, as authorities claim they've done, would disrupt the cash flow to Mexican drug cartels which rely on the proceeds from marijuana sales as a key source of income.

"This is where the cartels get the resources to finance the violence in Mexico," Kempshall said.

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