Source: Dallas Morning News http://www.dallasnews.com Contact: and Sat, 4 Oct 1997 Drug agents seize 508acre border ranch Officials hail action; nearby resident says she still feels unsafe By David Mclemore / The Dallas Morning News QUEMADO, Texas A 508acre Maverick County ranch seized by federal drug agents is a symptom of both the problem and the solution to a border overrun by drug traffickers, a U.S. attorney said Friday. "Last year, Maverick County ranchers told us of their fears that their land was being overrun by traffickers. This property is proof they were right," said Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. "But we've taken it back, and I hope the ranchers see this as a sign they can come forward and help us fight the drug dealers." A Maverick County woman, who with her husband operates a nearby cattle ranch, said area ranchers were pleased by the seizure but questioned just how much it will change the situation. "We're always happy to see the dopers fall," said the woman, who asked that her name not be used. "But we still can't let our grandkids roam the ranch and we still don't feel safe at night." Las Moras Ranch, a land of rolling scrub brush and mesquite that folds down to the Rio Grande from U.S. Highway 277, about 10 miles upriver from the small town of Quemado. Long a favored crossing point for Mexican drug traffickers, the ranch was seized by U.S. Customs narcotics agents last October after a lengthy investigation of a marijuana smuggling operation run by Alvaro NarvizGuerra. It was officially forfeited to the U.S. government Sept. 8 by a federal judge in Austin. Eventually, the ranch will be sold, with about 20 percent of the proceeds going to the federal government and the remainder to state and local agencies that helped in the investigation. Mr. NarvizGuerra, 44, a wellconnected marijuana distributor from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, bought the property in 1991 for about $1.2 million, mostly in cash, through a third party to hide his identity, according to David Wharton, resident agent in charge of the Customs investigations office in Del Rio. "It was a perfect place for the dope trade," Mr. Wharton said. "You can walk in from Mexico in broad daylight and no one's going to know." He has a point. The land slopes down toward the river, which is only 1 to 3 feet deep. Dirt trails lead up from the river, tunneling through cane growing 14 feet high along the banks. A wider dirt road winds nearly three miles up to a metal barn, where, agents said, Mr. NarvizGuerra's workers stashed the marijuana for shipment to Austin, Houston and on to California, Louisiana, Ohio, Georgia and North Carolina. Over four years, Mr. NarvizGuerra and his partner, Larry A. Grant, 45, a native of Hondo, shipped out 10 to 12 tons of marijuana, according to court records. Both Mr. NarvizGuerra and Mr. Grant were convicted by a federal jury in Austin on Dec. 10, 1996. Mr. Grant was sentenced to 15 2/3 years for drug smuggling and money laundering. Mr. NarvizGuerra received 30 years under the drug kingpin statute. While Customs agents began gathering information on Mr. NarvizGuerra and Mr. Grant in the early 1990s, the case began to gel after federal agents in Austin arrested four North Texas residents with 455 pounds of marijuana. The quartet told police that they had picked up the marijuana at a place called Las Moras Ranch, which was listed in the name of Francisco Garza of Tepic, Mexico. Records seized from Mr. Grant's home helped investigators demonstrate that Mr. Garza had been a strawman buyer for Mr. NarvizGuerra. Bank records showed the purchase amount had been funneled through Mexican banks in Ciudad Acuna into American accounts. "When they bought the ranch, they initially attempted to make it look like a legitimate commercial operation," said Customs Agent Jeff Boyette, who led the investigation. "But over the first two years, they began selling off cattle and equipment and it became pretty clear they weren't in the cattle business anymore." This kind of smuggling operation indicates increased sophistication by drug traffickers in the Del Rio area in smuggling drugs and disguising their profits, Agent Boyette said. "This is just how the area around McAllen and Brownsville was about five years ago," he said. "And it's only going to get worse." With the disruption of two major Mexican drug cartels by the conviction of Juan GarciaAbrego and the death of Amado Carillo Fuentes, a power vacuum among drug smugglers has driven more narcotics toward Del Rio, he said. "Plus, with the pressure exerted by Operation Rio Grande in Brownsville and increased interdiction in El Paso, we're the next big hole in the border," he said. Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Marshall, who prosecuted Mr. NarvizGuerra, said the convictions and the seizure of the ranch mark a significant loss to the drug traffickers. "We have shut down a major network, sent nine people to prison and took money away from the bad guys," Mr. Marshall said. "It's not a question of no place being safe along the border. We're making it safe for the good guys." The seizure of Las Moras Ranch also indicates a renewed commitment to the drug war along this part of the border, said Mr. Blagg. Mr. Blagg noted that a few years ago, there was one prosecutor assigned to the Del Rio court. Now there are six. "Our criminal docket in the Del Rio sector has increased 230 percent over the past year," he said. "We've filed 400 new cases and half of them are drug cases." He added, "There's a new sense of cooperation between federal, state and local law enforcement to renew our efforts to stop the drugs at the border. If we can keep it from getting to Austin and Houston, what's wrong with that?"