Pubdate: Wed, 08 Jan 2003
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2003 The Dallas Morning News
Contact:  http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Ricardo Sandoval, The Dallas Morning News 

U.S.-MEXICO SWEEP NETS 176 DRUG-TRAFFICKING SUSPECTS

Officials Say It's Key Score Against Accused Cartel Leader Zambada

MEXICO CITY - At least 176 drug-trafficking suspects have been arrested this
week in the United States and Mexico - the biggest score in a 19-month
operation against what officials said is one of the world's largest
smuggling networks, U.S. and Mexican officials said Thursday.

The binational sweep was the highlight of Operation Trifecta. The probe was
triggered by the December 2001 seizure of a cargo ship laden with nearly 10
tons of Colombian cocaine off Mexico's Pacific Coast, and the subsequent
discovery a drug-smuggling tunnel dug under the Mexican border with Arizona.

W. Mexico Cities

The freighter and the tunnel were linked to an emerging cartel allegedly run
by Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, who today ranks as Mexico's most-wanted accused
drug lord. The cartel operates out of the western Mexico cities of
Guadalajara and Culiacan, and in recent years it has won turf wars against
the powerful Arellano Felix organization, based in Tijuana.

"[Mr. Zambada] is alleged to be the head of one of the largest, most
powerful and ruthless drug trafficking organizations in Mexico," U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a statement. "His organization
allegedly imports multiton quantities of cocaine and marijuana into the
United States and uses a complex distribution network to deal these illegal
drugs nationwide."

U.S. officials in Washington also unsealed an indictment - first issued in
January - against Mr. Zambada. It charges him with trafficking tens of
millions of dollars worth of cocaine and heroin in New York, Chicago and
California.

U.S. drug agents say they believe that it was Mr. Zambada who ordered last
year's murder of Ramon Arellano Felix in the Pacific Coast resort of
Mazatlan. That incident preceded the arrest of Benjamin Arellano Felix and
signaled the ascension of Mr. Zambada to the top of the list of most-wanted
Mexican kingpins.

Mr. Zambada is thought to have once belonged to the larger Juarez cartel and
has shown a willingness to combine smuggling resources with other Mexican
and Colombian organizations - a method U.S. officials suspect is winning him
a greater role in the illegal drug business.

Thursday's raids netted Manuel Campa Medina, an alleged lieutenant in the
Zambada organization and the man allegedly responsible for some of the
busiest drug-smuggling routes in Mexico.

Since December of 2001, Operation Trifecta has yielded 350 arrests, the
seizure of 11,759 kilograms of cocaine, 24,409 pounds of marijuana, nearly
108 pounds of methamphetamine and about $8.3 million in cash.

Drug labs in Colombia were also dismantled, officials said.

Mexican and U.S. law enforcement officials called the operation one of the
best recent examples of the close cooperation between U.S. and Mexican drug
investigators.

"Investigations like this one are the living proof that nowadays,
organizations have no nationality, they do not recognize borderlines and
have no limits," said Rafael Macedo de la Concha, Mexico's attorney general.
"This investigation reveals that also international cooperation is a useful
and effective mechanism to face international organized crime."

In the last 16 months, improved cooperation has led to the arrest of
Benjamin Arellano Felix and the crippling of his vast organization, and the
arrest of Osiel Cardenas, alleged chief of Mexico's Gulf Cartel, in a bloody
shootout in the border city of Matamoros.

Paths To U.S. Streets

U.S. officials believe that Mexican drug smugglers introduce, through a
variety of clandestine avenues across the border, two-thirds of the cocaine
and heroin sold on U.S. streets.

U.S. drug agents say their Mexican counterparts have come a long way in the
war on drugs. Despite millions of dollars that drug lords shell out in
payoffs, hundreds of Mexican federal police and prosecutors have been
arrested or fired since President Vicente Fox took office in 2000.

On Thursday, four other alleged Zambada organization leaders were arrested
in Mexico, while dozens of affiliated traffickers were busted in several
U.S. cities.
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