Showing posts with label drug cartel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label drug cartel. Show all posts

Thursday, May 9, 2019

Drugs smugglers stopped at the border

At the Hidalgo-Reynosa International Bridge in Texas on May 7, CBP officers referred a 20-year-old man from Reynosa, Tamaulipas, Mexico and the silver Nissan Juke he was driving for further inspection.

During the secondary inspection, which included the assistance of a canine team, officers discovered 48 packages of alleged methamphetamine that were concealed within the vehicle. The total weight of the drugs is 92.51 pounds (41.96 kg).

CBP OFO seized the alleged methamphetamine along with the vehicle and arrested the Reynosa resident. The case remains under investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents.

Packages containing 92.51 pounds of
methamphetamine seized by CBP officers at
Hidalgo International Bridge. Courtesy of Border Patrol



And on Tuesday, May 7, in Arizona, CBP Officers at the Dennis DeConcini Crossing referred a 29-year-old Mexican national for further inspection of his Mercury SUV when he attempted to enter the U.S. from Mexico Tuesday afternoon. After a CBP narcotics detection canine alerted to a scent it is trained to detect, officers removed 80 packages from all four doors.

The packages were identified as more than 78 pounds of meth, with an estimated value of nearly $235,000. They also seized more than six pounds of heroin, worth almost $160,000 as well as more than six pounds of fentanyl, worth $84,000.

Officers seized the drugs and vehicle. The subject was arrested and then turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.

Officers removed packages
from all four doors of a
smuggling vehicle. Courtesy of Border Patrol

 



Tuesday, August 15, 2017

LA gang members plead guilty to RICO and narcotics indictments

Pixabay.com
Mexican Mafia member Arnold Gonzales ordered a so-called “peace treaty” of three Northeast Los Angeles rival street gangs in 2010. The three street gangs, known as Frogtown, Toonerville and Rascals, were ordered to work together to take over the narcotics trade, collect so-called taxes from street drug dealers and all other illegal activities that encompass the area in and around the Los Angeles River from Elysian Park to about Burbank. Due to the fact that Gonzales was serving a life sentence for murder, he appointed Jorge Grey, aka “Bouncer” from the Frogtown gang to serve as his emissary on the street and senior member Santos Zepeda, aka “Slim,” as Grey's top lieutenant. Together they were to rule the streets with a heavy hand.

In 2015, after a 2 ½ -year investigation led by the ATF called Operation “Gig 'em”, arrested and indictment were set in motion. Most importantly, the investigation proved that Gonzales had formed a criminal organization by unifying the three rival gangs into a single criminal enterprise. This act justified the issuing of a federal racketeering 27-count indictment, (RICO) against 22 gang members. According to the indictments numerous transactions of narcotics and firearm dealings were alleged including charges relating to two shootings. It is also alleged that Gonzales benefited greatly from the drug trafficking and collecting of taxes on his behalf and that sums of money were deposited into his prison account. Other charges pending against the alleged defendants include conspiracy to commit murder, murder, robbery and the possession of a machine gun.

This morning, Santos Zepeda, top lieutenant of this criminal organization pleaded guilty before United States District Judge Philip S. Gutierrez, to conspiring to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, conspiring to traffic methamphetamine and being a primary supplier of narcotics to the criminal enterprise. The judge ordered his sentencing to be scheduled for January 22, 2018. If found guilty, he could receive a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum penalty of life without parole. Out of the 22 defendants named in the indictment, 11 have pleaded guilty. The remaining 11 defendants, including Grey, are scheduled to go on trial on March 5, 2018.

Friday, March 3, 2017

Massive heroin and gang crackdown in North County, California

After a year long investigation named “Operation No Worries” by the North County Regional Gang Task Force in California, consisting of extensive surveillance, months of federal wiretaps, and dozens of undercover drug and gun buys; the Gang Task Force along with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies set out early yesterday morning to make numerous arrest and perform investigation searches in over 20 locations in Oceanside, Vista, and other areas in North County as well as in Kingman, Arizona. Their morning efforts led to the arrest of 14 more defendants, bringing the total to 46 arrested and in federal or state custody. The Gang Task Force and other law #enforcement continue the search for seven defendants plus two in Mexico.

Courtesy of ICE
According to the ten federal indictments that was unsealed yesterday, many of the 55 defendants are documented members or associates of area street gangs, including the Vista Home Boys, Varrio Fallbrook Locos, Varrio Carlsbad Locos, Encinitas Tortilla Flats, Varrio San Marcos and Escondido Viejo Diablos; charges against them range from heroin drug distribution, firearms trafficking, money laundering, vehicles, deaths, robberies and burglaries, assaults and methamphetamine distribution.

Many of those in custody were scheduled for 2 pm arraignment yesterday and today before U. S. Magistrate Judge Karen S Crawford. Throughout the investigation and searches authorities seized numerous counts of heroin, methamphetamine and 25 firearms, including handguns, revolvers and assault rifles. They also discovered that drugs and guns were being sold and stored throughout North County neighborhoods, including across the street from Vista high school.

According to the charging documents, one of the defendants named Yadira Esmeralda Villalvazo, 38, aka “Pini”, from Tijuana, Mexico led a trafficking organization that used street gang members to distribute heroin. Villalvazo, herself attended Vista high school and was associated with the Vista Home Boys street gang before she was deported in 2002 after a federal drug trafficking conviction. 

She now owns her own Sinaloa Cartel-linked organization in Tijuana, and supplies and sells heroin to at least 25 percent of North County's consumers which grosses her tens of thousands of dollars that are all sent back to Mexico. Also, according to court records, her network supplied great quantities of drugs to a well known heroin ring in Kingman, Arizona. 

 

Wednesday, August 12, 2015

Video: USCG Cutter Stratton Carries Out Billion Dollar Drug Offload

The Coast Guard Cutter Stratton crew offloads 34 metric tons of cocaine in San Diego on Monday, Aug. 10th, 2015. The drugs were seized in 23 separate interdiction's by Coast Guard cutters and Coast Guard law enforcement teams operating in known drug transiting zones, resulting in an offload valued at more than $1 billion. U. S. Coast Guard video by Petty Officer 2nd Class Patrick Kelley.
Public Domain Mark
This work is free of known copyright restrictions.



Coast Guard Cutter Stratton crew offloads 34 metric tons of cocaine in San Diego on Monday, Aug. 10th, 2015. The drugs were seized in 23 separate interdiction's by Coast Guard cutters and Coast Guard law enforcement teams operating in known drug transiting zones. Official U.S. Coast Guard photo by Petty Officer 3rd Class Joel Guzman/released.
Public Domain Mark
This work is free of known copyright restrictions.



Article on: