U.S. crackdown on Mexican drug cartel has Inland link
By PAUL LAROCCO
The Press-Enterprise
SAN BERNARDINO - Once arguably the nation's methamphetamine production capital, the Inland region has transformed into one of its most vital distribution points.
That, authorities said Thursday, became even clearer with the results of this week's multi-agency "takedown" targeting one of the largest Mexican drug cartels operating in the U.S.
Wednesday's coordinated strike against La Familia -- called the country's largest single-day operation targeting a Mexican cartel -- seized 728 pounds of meth during early-morning raids from Georgia to Washington.
More than a fifth of it -- 156 pounds -- came from in and around the Inland region.
"The area's a staging point, a flashpoint, whatever you want to call it," said Stephen Azzam, the assistant special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Riverside district office. "You see it all the time."
The reasons, officials said at a Thursday news conference at the San Bernardino County sheriff's headquarters, range from the area's proximity to the border to its multiple interstate crossings.
In all, 300 trafficking suspects were arrested by federal and local agents who fanned out from 38 cities. Locally, there were 25 arrests. Some of the Inland men and women suspected of trafficking drugs were jailed in lieu of $5 million bail.
The local portion of the investigation, dubbed "Operation Tecate," began in June 2008, and in those 16 months netted about 500 pounds of meth, 128 pounds of cocaine and $531,000 in cash.
"We think we've made a significant impact," said San Bernardino County sheriff's Lt. Hector Guerra, a member of the Inland Regional Narcotics Enforcement Team, which led the local operation.
On display as officials announced the operation were tightly wrapped plastic packages of meth, some up to 10 pounds each. A photograph showed a children's backpack filled with drugs.
As the majority of large-scale meth production has moved outside of U.S. borders, La Familia is believed to have become one of the top suppliers of the drug to the United States, authorities said, and is increasingly dealing in other narcotics.
Over 44 months, the totals for the nationwide effort include 1,178 arrests, and seizures of 2,729 pounds of meth, 4,409 pounds of cocaine, 29 pounds of heroin and 16,390 pounds of marijuana.
Nearly 400 weapons, from semi-automatic handguns to high-powered rifles, and $32.9 million in cash also were seized.
VIOLENT CARTEL
La Familia, based in Michoacan, Mexico, has earned a reputation as one of the most violent cartels, officials said, using military-grade weapons to carry out kidnappings and killings of Mexican law enforcement.
There has been no reported violence attributed to the cartel in the Inland region, Guerra said.
"Fortunately, most of that stuff has stayed down south," Guerra said after the news conference.
The cartel likes to think of itself as a "Robin Hood" for its home state, Azzam said. It doesn't believe in providing meth to Mexicans.
But funneling the drug to U.S. users and having only cartel leaders reap the profits doesn't qualify as altruism, he said.
"They're not taking from the rich," Azzam said. "It's just greed."
The cartel's tentacles extend coast to coast and deep into America's heartland, with arrests announced Thursday from Boston to Seattle and from St. Paul, Minn., to Raleigh, N.C.
Drug deals went down in Oklahoma parking lots, suppliers were advised to weld drugs into tire rims for transport, and in the Dallas and Seattle areas, dozens of children were removed from houses where authorities found drugs, guns or cash derived from drug sales.
INLAND INVESTIGATION
The Inland narcotics task force is made up of members of both San Bernardino and Riverside counties' sheriff's departments, San Bernardino and Redlands police, the DEA and the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
The teams served 32 search warrants Wednesday.
Leads developed in the local investigation led to arrests and seizures in San Jose, the Central Valley and Washington state, among other areas. The cartel's two largest bases of operations were Southern California and Dallas, Azzam said.
"Information we put forward was instrumental in a lot of the stuff that took place across the country," he said.
Many details of the operation were withheld, such as the intelligence methods used and the specific locations targeted, with officials citing an ongoing probe.
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