Looks like the cartels are moving north.

A multiagency drug investigation in Southern Indiana has yielded federal indictments of 28 people, all but three of whom were in custody Thursday evening.

Search warrants were executed Thursday at three addresses in Vanderburgh County and one in Warrick County, as well as others in Jasper, Ind., and Indianapolis.

Law enforcement officials said the raid shut down three organizations that distributed cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine.

Seized during the investigation were about 16 pounds of meth, 1,000 pounds of marijuana, 24 pounds of cocaine, 15 firearms and more than $500,000 in cash.

The 28 people indicted had varying degrees of authority within the drugtrafficking organizations, said authorities. But they said the bust's scope is substantial.

"There are going to be a number of people unable to traffic as freely or as much because of these arrests," said Timothy Morrison, acting U.S. attorney for Southern Indiana, during a Thursday afternoon news conference with city, county and state authorities.

The investigation spanned two years and targeted drugtrafficking organizations that stretched from Evansville to Indianapolis, the Western U.S. and Mexico, Morrison said.

Three sets of indictments, one each related to marijuana, cocaine and meth, were announced. Some of the defendants are named in more than one indictment.

Authorities said the marijuana operation involved a Mexican national supplying Rosendo Barragan-Cruz, 23, of Evansville and then collecting proceeds.

Barragan-Cruz then would distribute marijuana locally, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.

The six people charged with cocaine trafficking all have either Utah or Indianapolis addresses. Those defendants, authorities allege, conspired to deliver cocaine to Rosalio Cruz-Rea, 30.

The meth operation is believed to have had an even wider reach. Seventeen people face charges, 11 of whom live in Evansville, Newburgh or Henderson, Ky.

Barragan-Cruz along with two Newburgh men — Jose Eduardo Barragan, 22, and Claudio Zarate-Pinon, 26 — are accused of receiving meth from Indianapolis and handing it out locally.

The trio was supplied, according to authorities, by Fredy Martinez-Palermo, 28, of Indianapolis and Cruz-Rea, who has a Utah address.

The three people who authorities continue to seek are Pedro A. Arana, 21, of Albuquerque, N.M.; Juan Sandoval-Dias, 22, of Utah; and Shawn Miguel Mendoza, 32, of Tennessee. Morrison said a one-day roundup of 25 people named in a 28-person federal indictment is "pretty good when you're going after a prosecution like this." Some of the defendants also could also face state charges, he said.

The investigation also nabbed two Evansville residents not named in the indictment. Fernando Correa and Velia Sedillo, ages unavailable, are jailed "based upon criminal complaints alleging their involvement in the distribution of methamphetamine," a news release said.

Morrison said some of those charged are legal U.S. citizens and some are not, but he was unable to identify those who were in the country illegally.

Many people named in the indictments use aliases, and Morrison said part of the challenge investigators faced was "trying to find out who (the defendants) really are."

Because of strict federal sentencing guidelines, all people named in the indictment face lengthy prison terms if found guilty.

"This is one for the good guys," Vanderburgh County Sheriff Eric Williams said. "The bad guys lost."

Here are names of local residents indicted by a federal grand jury in a multi-agency investigation disclosed on Thursday:

n Rosendo Barragan-Cruz, aka "Pollo," 23, Evansville

n Jose Eduardo Barragan, aka "Lalo," 22, Evansville

n Claudio Zarate-Pinon, aka "Jhonatan Contreras-Rivas," 26, Evansville

n Genaro Barragan-Cruz, aka "Du," 27, Evansville

n Claudio Justo Javier-Nunez, aka "Huevon," 31, Newburgh

n Yisell Salgado, 30, Newburgh

n Maday Carmona, aka "Marucha," 24, Evansville

n Richard L. Cansler, aka "Creep," 33, Evansville

n James Matthew Ervin, aka "Moyoso," 28, Henderson, Ky.

n Jorge Gutierrez-Madrigal, aka "Chaparro," age unavailable, Henderson, Ky.

n Heather R. Phillips, 32, Evansville

n Phillip D. Ashby, 35, Evansville

n Jose Garcia-Franco, aka "Purria," 26, Evansville

n Jason Edward Harwell, 29, Evansville

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