Posted on 06/14/2012 5:24:56 PM PDT by Tammy8
RUIDOSO, N.M. – In the stables at a prominent quarter horse track in New Mexico, workers quietly nicknamed Jose Trevino Morales's stables as the "Zetas' stables" and say they often saw people show up with bags of cash to buy the horses.
On Tuesday, authorities raided those stables and a horse ranch in Oklahoma accusing Trevino and others of running a sophisticated money-laundering operation connected to one of Mexico's most powerful and ruthless drug cartels.
Federal authorities accuse Trevino's older brother, Miguel Angel Trevino Morales, a key figure in the Zetas drug operation, of setting up the horse operation that the younger brother ran from the sprawling ranch near Lexington, Okla., south of Oklahoma City. Millions of dollars went through the operation, which bought, trained, bred and raced quarter horses throughout the southwest United States, including at the famed Ruidoso Downs track in New Mexico.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/13/oklahoma-new-mexico-horse-racing-tracks-linked-to-mexican-drug-cartel-feds-say/#ixzz1xoi0T1k3
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Not sure why the California connection wasn’t mentioned in the above article, but link to that here:
http://www.ocregister.com/news/horses-358922-nayen-trevino.html
Ping
Sad to see Ruidoso Downs linked in any way to the Mexican Drug Cartels
Grew up in El Paso, and quite familiar w Ruidoso. It is one of the top quarter-horse tracks in the nation..and its All American Futurity is one of the richest purses in all of horse racing. Many wealthy Texans came to Ruidoso for the horses as Texas did not have pari-mutuels.
NM Ping.
I have a co-worker who’s going to be so disappointed.
She won’t believe the corruption has made its way to Ruidoso Downs...
No reason not to understand that, though. Anywhere you have large sums of money in play, you’re liable to have money-laundering going on.
Another article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/13/us/drug-money-from-mexico-makes-its-way-to-the-racetrack.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&hp
Ruidoso Downs itself is clean. It was the horses stabled there and their owners that are connected to the cartels.
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The feds should look at the bail bond business. A lot of cash and you are already dealing with criminals to start with. And no not everyone who needs bail is a criminal.
Now, Sunland Park, on the other hand...
A Zeta horse ranch just got busted here in Central Texas also.
Hmmm I wonder why the media didn’t report this as one story? Instead you have to piece several together to find out how big this really is. It is almost as if they don’t want us to realize how big this is.
Surely the cartels have not invested in other businesses in the U.S.... nope nothing to see here.
Yep, another big one to consider.
How about used car dealers?
A ring of them was taken down in Phoenix 5-6 years ago. I’m sure they were replaced in short order.
Nice point.
The media is just giving peace a chance. Anything to move us along and away from securing the border, or looking south at the coming threat.
Oh yeah, car dealerships- even those that sell new cars, one of those in our neck of the woods was seized a few years back for money laundering- was a Ford Dealership, the owner was creating paperwork, fake loans so he could let the bad guys pay cash for new vehicles.
Restaurants and bars are often used as well, we joke about restaurants that never have any business...sure it is not a joke they are likely kept open laundering money. I am sure this is far larger than any of us can imagine.
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