Alleged Mexican Cartel Leaders, Associates Targeted in Newest Effort to Combat Drug...

Alleged Mexican Cartel Leaders, Associates Targeted in Newest Effort to Combat Drug Trafficking Organizations

Today the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury announced coordinated actions against the Gulf Cartel/Los Zetas drug trafficking organization, now known as the "Company," in the latest in a series of efforts by the U.S. government to neutralize and dismantle this violent cartel.

Antonio Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, Jorge Eduardo Costilla-Sanchez, Heriberto Lazcano-Lazcano and Miguel Trevino-Morales, high-level Mexican leaders of the Company and 15 of their top lieutenants, have been charged in U.S. federal courts with drug trafficking-related crimes. Also today, the State Department announced rewards of up to $50 million, collectively, for information leading to the capture of 10 of these defendants, including the four leaders who were also specially designated as Narcotics Kingpins today by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

"These indictments allege a stunning and sophisticated operation by the Company to move illegal drugs into our communities and cash back to Mexico," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer. "We have learned that the most effective way to disrupt and dismantle criminal organizations is to prosecute their leaders and seize their funding. Today’s coordinated actions by the Departments of Justice, State and Treasury will serve not only to bring these individuals to justice, but also to significantly slow the flow of cash that is so vital to cartel operations. These actions are also the result of our strong partnership with Mexican Attorney General Medina Mora, Secretary of Public Security Garcia Luna and other Mexican officials. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our brave Mexican colleagues in the fight against these destructive cartels."

"Violent drug trafficking organizations represent a threat to the health and safety of people in Mexico and the U.S.," said Acting Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. "These indictments and rewards prove our commitment to disrupting the cycle of drugs and associated violence that follow the cartels wherever they operate. I am especially proud of our DEA Houston and New York Divisions, whose investigations were the thrust behind the indictments of these offenders. With the help of the public, and in close coordination with the government of Mexico, they will be brought to justice."

"Following on the heels of the President’s naming of Los Zetas as a drug kingpin organization in April, we are today targeting sanctions against four drug lords who are senior leaders in Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel," said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. "We remain committed to using all tools at our disposal to assist President Calderon in his courageous efforts against Mexico’s deadly narcotics cartels."

Today, an indictment was unsealed in the Eastern District of New York charging Miguel Trevino-Morales with operating a continuing criminal enterprise, international cocaine distribution and firearms violations. The indictment also contains a $1 billion forfeiture allegation. If convicted on all charges, he faces life in prison. Miguel Trevino-Morales is a principal leader of Los Zetas, originally a security force used by the Gulf Cartel. The Zetas, whose origin includes former members of the Air Mobile Special Forces Group of the Mexican military, have evolved into not only a security force but a drug trafficking organization in their own right.

In addition, a three-count superseding indictment returned June 9, 2009, in the District of Columbia charges the four leaders and 15 other alleged cartel members with conspiracy to possess with intent to import cocaine and marijuana into the United States and two counts of possession with intent to import cocaine into the United States. Cardenas-Guillen, Costilla-Sanchez and Lazcano-Lazcano are Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Consolidated Priority Organization Targets (CPOTs). Conviction on any count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison.

According to the superseding indictment, the Company was led primarily by a governing council, or triumvirate, which consisted of Cardenas-Guillen, Costilla-Sanchez and Lazcano-Lazcano. The indictment alleges the Company has operated along the U.S./Mexico border, dividing the territory into areas known as "plazas" and assigning each plaza region a leader known as the "plaza boss." The superseding indictment alleges Cardenas-Guillen, Costilla-Sanchez and Lazcano-Lazcano directed the Company’s cocaine and marijuana shipments via boats, planes and cars from Colombia and Venezuela to Guatemala, as well as to various cities and "plazas" in Mexico. From Mexico, the drugs were then shipped into cities in Texas for distribution to other cities in the United States.

The Company allegedly used sophisticated record keeping programs to track shipping, employment, payroll and payments made to law enforcement officials as well as payments received and owed. The superseding indictment alleges that the defendants discussed, among other things, supply issues, debt collection, pricing for the drugs in specific areas, bonus structures for individuals working at the "plazas," concealment of the drugs during transportation, methods of shipment from Mexico to Texas, seizures of shipments and locations along the U.S./Mexico border where defendants allegedly believed the drugs could move more freely and control of law enforcement in certain areas.

Cardenas-Guillen, Costilla-Sanchez and Lazcano-Lazcano were previously charged with drug trafficking crimes in 2008 in two separate indictments returned in the District of Columbia cases. The other previously charged defendants, included in the superseding indictment, are Jaime Gonzales-Duran; Samuel Flores-Borrego; Mario Ramirez-Trevino; Alfredo Rangel-Buendia; FNU LNU, aka Lino; Gilberto Barragan-Balderas; Juan Reyes Mejia-Gonzales; Omar Trevino-Morales; Jesus Enrique Rejon Aguilar; Alfonso Lam-Liu; Eleazar Medina-Rojas; and Aurelio Cano-Flores. The superseding indictment also added the following defendants: Carlos Cerda-Gonzalez, Victor Hugo Lopez-Valdez and Sigifredo Najera-Talamantes.

Costilla-Sanchez is also charged, along with Osiel Cardenas-Guillen and eight others, in a 17-count superseding indictment filed in the Southern District of Texas in April 2002 with conspiracy to import and possess with intent to distribute cocaine and marijuana, conspiracy to launder drug money and threatening to assault a federal officer. A State Department reward of up to $5 million has previously been offered for information leading to the arrest of Costilla-Sanchez.

Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, along with 13 others, is also charged in a 10-count indictment filed in the Southern District of Texas in December 2002 with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, possession with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to launder drug money. Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen is alleged to have controlled a cocaine and money laundering organization in Matamoros, Mexico, with multiple cells in Houston that warehoused, transported and distributed multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine and laundered millions of dollars in drug proceeds that were smuggled into Mexico beginning in 1998.

Members of the Company on the DEA Most-Wanted List are also subjects of rewards, up to $5 million each, offered by the State Department through the Narcotics Rewards Program for information leading to these individuals’ arrest. They include:

(AKA Ezequiel Cardenas-Guillen, Marcos Ledezma, Tony Tormenta and Licenciado) Miguel Angel Trevino-Morales

(AKA 40, Cuarenta, L-40, David Estrada-Corado and Comandante Forty) Alejandro Trevino-Morales

(AKA Mario Armando Ramirez-Trevino, X-20, Mario Pelon and Pelon) Gilberto Barragan-Balderas

(AKA Metro Tres, Tres, M Three, El Cabezon, Metro Three and Commander Tres) Aurelio Cano-Flores

(AKA Yankee and Yeyo. Now in custody). Since the inception of the Narcotics Rewards Program in the 1980s, the Department of State has paid more than $44 million in rewards to individuals whose information helped bring to justice many major violators of U.S. drug laws who were responsible for importing hundreds of tons of illegal narcotics into the United States each year. In addition, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office previously announced rewards of up to $2.4 million (30,000,000 pesos), per individual, for information leading to the capture of Costilla-Sanchez, Cardenas-Guillen, Lazcano-Lazcano and Miguel Trevino-Morales.

In support of the coordinated U.S. government effort against this organization, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s OFAC today designated Costilla-Sanchez, Cardenas-Guillen, Lazcano-Lazcano and Miguel Trevino-Morales as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers through the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). Today’s designation action freezes any assets the individuals may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting transactions or dealings in the property interests of the designated individuals and entities. Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to $1,075,000 per violation to more severe criminal penalties. Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines up to $5 million. Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10 million. Other individuals face up to 10 years in prison and fines for criminal violations of the Kingpin Act. On April 15, 2009, the President designated Los Zetas as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker Kingpin organization.

During the coordinated investigation that led to the superseding indictment in the District of Columbia being returned, foreign law enforcement seized substantial amounts of drugs belonging to this organization. Among the shipments intercepted was a 2,400 kilogram cocaine shipment intercepted and seized in Panama on Nov. 30, 2007. On Oct. 5, 2007, Mexican authorities seized an 11.7 ton load of cocaine, which was (at the time) the largest cocaine seizure in Mexican history. On Oct. 16, 2008, Mexican law enforcement agents seized more than 9,000 kilograms of marijuana belonging to the Company in Guadalupe, Mexico.

In September 2008, the Department announced the arrests of more than 175 alleged Gulf Cartel members and associates in Project Reckoning, a multi-agency international law enforcement effort that targeted key leadership elements of this organization. That effort is continuing through the coordinated multi-agency initiatives and developments announced today. To date, Project Reckoning has resulted in more than 620 arrests and the seizure of more than $84 million in U.S. currency, multiple tons of illegal drugs and 934 weapons.

The prosecution in New York is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys from the Eastern District of New York. The case is being investigated by the New York offices of the DEA and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The prosecution in the District of Columbia is being handled by trial attorneys from the Criminal Division’s Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section (NDDS). The Criminal Division’s Office of International Affairs has provided significant assistance. The case is being investigated by the DEA Houston Office in coordination with the Special Operations Division, comprised of agents, analysts and attorneys from NDDS, DEA, FBI, ICE, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service and Internal Revenue Service.

An indictment is a formal charging document notifying the defendant of his charges. All persons charged in an indictment are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

stepping back in time...

Quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2220358/posts

Clash of the cartels: a guide
globalpost.com ^ | March 28, 2009 | Ioan Grillo
Posted on April 1, 2009 6:27:36 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe

MEXICO CITY — As Mexico suffers from an onslaught of massacres, decapitations and execution-style hits, six major drug cartels have carved up the country into fiefdoms. Like the armies of authentic warlords, the cartels attempt to completely dominate their territories, controlling trafficking routes, local drug sales and other criminal enterprises. Clashing over disputed turf, the cartels all have carried out murders on an epic scale.

Sinaloa Cartel

City base: Culiacan (northwestern Mexico)

Kingpins: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, Juan Jose Esparragoza (El Azul)

States in sphere of influence: Sinaloa, Sonora, Durango, Morelos, Chihuahua, Baja California, Mexico City, Quintana Roo, Yucatan

History: The Pacific state of Sinaloa gave birth to the Mexican narcotics trade when peasant farmers used its arid mountains to grow opium in the first part of the 20th century. The Sinaloa Cartel is said to have its roots in the early organizations that used houses in the state capital Culiacan to convert these opium poppies into heroin for the U.S. market. The cartel was quick to dominate the subsequent trades in marijuana and Colombian cocaine, and grew to be the size of Colombia’s notorious Medellin cartel by the mid-1990s. It is believed to be the Mexican cartel that has trafficked the greatest amount of narcotics throughout the first decade of the 21st century.

Of note:

Kingpin Guzman was arrested in 1993 in Guatemala and extradited to Mexico, where he served in the high-security Puente Grande prison in Jalisco. In 2001, he escaped from the prison in a laundry truck.
The crime family has its own musical group named after it called Grupo Cartel de Sinaloa.
Cartel leaders are alleged to visit expensive Sinaloan restaurants with entourages of gunmen and to pick up the tab for all the clientele.
Kingpin Guzman was listed on the 2009 Forbes billionaire list at number 701, with a supposed net worth of $1 billion.
The Gulf Cartel/The Zetas

City base: Matamoros (northeastern Mexico)

Kingpins: Osiel Cardenas (in prison in the United States), Ezequel Cardenas, Heriberto “The Executioner” Lazcano

States in sphere of influence: Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, Veracruz, Tabasco, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Yucatan

History: The Gulf Cartel has its roots in a gang of bootleggers who smuggled liquor into Texas in the 1930s and then expanded into other forms of contraband. In the 1970s, gang leader Juan Garcia Abrego, the nephew of one of the founders, established the cartel as one of the major traffickers of marijuana and cocaine. In the 1990s, a unit of elite Mexican soldiers defected to the Gulf Cartel and became its band of enforcers. Known as the Zetas, they used paramilitary tactics and extreme violence to control a large chunk of eastern Mexico.

Of note:

Kingpin Osiel Cardenas was arrested in 2003 but continued to run his operations from prison until he was extradited to the United States in 2007.
Cardenas allegedly threatened two DEA agents in 1999 with the line, “You gringos, this is my territory. You can’t control it, so get the hell out of here.’’
The Zetas are believed to be behind the biggest mass beheading in recent history, dumping 12 heads at two ranches in the southern Yucatan state in 2008.
The Zetas have operated full-fledged training camps near the U.S. border.
Tijuana Cartel

City base: Tijuana (south of San Diego)

Leaders: Eduardo Arellano Felix, Enedina Arellano Felix

States in sphere of influence: Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora

History: The Arellano Felix brothers originally worked within the Sinaloa Cartel, but broke off after the arrest of several major leaders in the late 1980s. By the end of the 1990s they had consolidated control of Tijuana and become the most high-profile cartel in Mexico. They were seriously weakened by the death and arrest of four major leaders at the beginning of the 21st century. But they are still the dominant force in the trafficking goldmine of Tijuana, which is home to the biggest border crossing into the U.S.

Of note:

The Tijuana Cartel recruited many wealthy young men from the city’s private universities and turned them into traffickers and hitmen known as the “Narco Juniors.”
The 2000 movie “Traffic” portrays a fictional crime family based on the Tijuana Cartel.
Santiago Meza, alias “the Stew Maker,” was arrested in 2009 and charged with dissolving 300 bodies, making them unrecognizable, for the Tijuana Cartel.
Juarez Cartel

City base: Ciudad Juarez (south of El Paso)

Leader: Vicente Carrillo Fuentes

States in sphere of influence: Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Sonora

History: The Juarez Cartel has its roots in a gang of smugglers who moved narcotics over the west Texas border in the 1970s. Originally, they worked alongside the Sinaloa Cartel, but leader Amado Carrillo Fuentes broke away in the 1990s and was believed to have become one the richest men in Mexico before his death in 1997. Under the leadership of his brother Vicente, Juarez has become the most violent city in Mexico, with 1,600 murders in 2008.

Of note:

Amado Carrillo Fuentes was known as the “Lord of the Skies” because of his fleet of 727 jet airliners.
Amado Carillo Fuentes died in a mysterious plastic surgery accident in a Mexico City hospital in 1997. The doctors were later murdered.
The Mexican government sent 7,000 soldiers to quell the violence of the Juarez Cartel in March 2009.
Beltran Leyva Organization

City Base: Culiacan

Leader: Arturo Beltran Leyva, alias “The Beard”

States in sphere of influence: Sinaloa, Sonora, Nuevo Leon, Morelos

History: The Beltran Leyva brothers were long-standing members of the Sinaloa Cartel. But in 2008 they broke with the other bosses, unleashing a bloody civil war in the state capital Culiacan. Since then they have become a powerful independent organization with a vast network of corrupt officials on their payroll and foot soldiers fighting in paramilitary units known as FEDA, a Spanish acronym for the Special Forces of Arturo.

Of note:

Hector Huerta Rios — a top cartel lieutenant who ran Beltran Leyva’s operations in northeastern Mexico — was arrested and presented to the press March 25, 2009, the day U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Mexico.
Brother Alfredo Beltran Leyva, known as the “Giant Ant,” was arrested in January 2008, in the most high-profile arrest of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s administration.
Arturo Beltran Leyva was alleged to be behind the killing of acting federal Police Chief Edgar Millan in his own home in May 2008.
A Mexican Interpol agent was arrested in 2008 for passing information about DEA agents to Beltran Leyva.
La Familia Michoacana

City base: Apatzingan (Central Mexico)

States in sphere of influence: Michoacan, Guerrero, Mexico State, Morelos, Nuevo Leon

Leaders: Unknown

History: The shadowy Familia Michoacana appeared in 2006, unleashing violence in central Mexico in alliance with Los Zetas. They have since broken away to form a separate cartel that has expanded rapidly into surrounding states. They are notorious for trafficking crystal meth, but have also moved into kidnapping and extortion rackets.

Of note:

Assassins for La Familia threw five human heads onto a disco dance floor in 2006.
The owner of third division soccer club “Los Mapaches” was arrested for being linked to La Familia.
La Familia are alleged to have been behind the high-profile kidnapping and killing of wealthy teenager Fernando Marti in Mexico City in 2008.

Note: The following text is a quote:

http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/tg220.htm

July 20, 2009
TG-220

Treasury Announces Sanctions of Mexican Drug Lords
Treasury, Justice, and State Coordinate Efforts to Combat Drug Trafficking

WASHINGTON – As part of an ongoing effort to apply financial measures against narcotics traffickers worldwide, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated four drug cartel leaders as Specially Designated Narcotics Traffickers pursuant to the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act (Kingpin Act). The four individuals designated today are leaders of the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, groups that are responsible for much of the violence taking place in Mexico today.

“Following on the heels of the President’s naming of Los Zetas as a drug kingpin organization in April, we are today targeting sanctions against four drug lords who are senior leaders in Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel,” said OFAC Director Adam J. Szubin. “We remain committed to using all tools at our disposal to assist President Calderon in his courageous efforts against Mexico’s deadly narcotics cartels.”

OFAC designated the following two individuals, who are leaders of the Gulf Cartel:

Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez (alias “El Coss”)
Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen (alias “Tony Tormenta”)

The following two individuals were also designated and are leaders of Los Zetas:

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano (alias “Lazca”)
Miguel Angel Trevino Morales (alias “Cuarenta”)
Today’s action is the latest in a series of coordinated efforts by the U.S. government to neutralize and dismantle Mexico’s violent drug cartels. The Department of Justice, in coordination with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has today announced new drug trafficking charges against Miguel Angel Trevino Morales. In June 2009, the Department of Justice charged 19 of the drug cartels’ top lieutenants, including Jorge Costilla Sanchez, Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, and Miguel Trevino Morales with drug trafficking-related crimes. Today, the State Department announced rewards of up to $5 million each, for information leading to the capture or conviction of 10 Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas leader, including Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and Miguel Trevino Morales. The State Department is also offering a $5 million reward for Jorge Costilla Sanchez. In 2008, Jorge Costilla Sanchez, Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen, Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano, and Miguel Trevino Morales were previously charged with drug trafficking crimes in the District of Colombia. Jorge Costilla Sanchez and Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen are also subjects of drug trafficking charges in the Southern District of Texas. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office also announced rewards of up to $2.4 million dollars (30,000,000 pesos), per individual, for information leading to their capture.

In 2007, the Gulf Cartel was identified as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker pursuant to the Kingpin Act. The Gulf Cartel is responsible for the smuggling and distribution of significant amounts of cocaine and marijuana to the United States. Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez and Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen direct the Gulf Cartel’s trafficking and sale of narcotics and ensure the flow of illicit proceeds earned from the drug trade back to the Gulf Cartel’s coffers. Ezequiel Cardenas Guillen is the brother of Osiel Cardenas Guillen, who was identified as a significant foreign narcotics trafficker in 2001. Osiel Cardenas Guillen was extradited from Mexico to the United States in January 2007.

Los Zetas were identified under the Kingpin Act in 2009. Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, as leaders of Los Zetas, control drug smuggling operations and battle rival cartels trying to expand into Gulf Cartel/Zeta territory. Historically, Los Zetas are considered to be the armed-wing of the Gulf Cartel, but they often operate independently.

Treasury’s OFAC is responsible for an ongoing effort under the Kingpin Act to apply financial measures against significant foreign narcotics traffickers worldwide. Since June 2000, more than 475 businesses and individuals associated with 82 drug kingpins have been designated by OFAC. Designation action freezes any assets the designees may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibits U.S. persons from conducting transactions or dealings in the property interests of the designated individuals and entities

Penalties for violations of the Kingpin Act range from civil penalties of up to 1.075 million per violation to more severe criminal penalties. Criminal penalties for corporate officers may include up to 30 years in prison and fines of up to $5 million. Criminal fines for corporations may reach $10 million. Other individuals face up to ten years in prison for criminal violation of the Kingpin Act and fines pursuant to Title 18 of the United States Code.

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REPORTS

Brutal Drug Lords of Mexico’s Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas

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