POLICE: TEENS TOTED RING'S DRUGS

Teenage boys were used as mules by the Mendivil Vega drug ring in
central Mesa, driving drug shipments around the Valley and throughout
the nation, police said.

"It's very sad that they have to get juveniles involved in their
crimes. They're corrupting juveniles," said Sgt. Chuck Trapani, a
Mesa police spokesman. "They don't wake up wanting to be drug
dealers. It's a learned behavior."

The boys were 16 and 17, Trapani said. They were used to protect
bigger players in the ring from arrest.

He said one defendant was charged in an indictment with child abuse
because a child was present during a drug buy.

Mesa police and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said
Tuesday they crippled the ring through a series of eight arrests in
Mesa, Tempe and Tucson. Trapani said police made one additional
arrest Wednesday and served two more court summons.

Police Chief Dennis Donna called it the largest Mesa drug ring in
recent history and said it's stronghold was near Stapley Drive and Main Street.

"Within a three-to five-mile area of Stapley and Main, they were
pretty much it in the distribution of drugs," Donna said.

The ring specialized in transporting methamphetamine, cocaine and
marijuana from Mexico, with some of the drugs strapped to the backs
of smugglers, Trapani said.

The ring operated stash houses across the Valley, including some in
Mesa. They sold the drugs locally and throughout the nation,
transporting them to Illinois, Ohio and New York.

Authorities conservatively estimate the ring moved 20 pounds of
methamphetamine, 20 kilos of cocaine and 500 pounds of marijuana to
other states each month.

The raids were carried out Tuesday in areas ranging from a middle
class neighborhood in the 2400 block of East Alpine Avenue to a
run-down apartment complex near Country Club Drive and Brown Road.

"The Chicago-based Latin King gang recruited gang members in Mesa and
established a distribution network," the state Attorney General's
Office said in a press release.

Donna said the Latin Kings are no different than other gangs in
setting up distribution networks in the Valley.

More than a decade ago, the Crips and Bloods, rival drug gangs in Los
Angeles, established crack networks in Phoenix, igniting a wave of
gang warfare.

Trapani said Mesa detectives identified several potential stash
houses in the city, but the ring moved the drugs before police could
establish adequate evidence to obtain search warrants.

City Council member Mike Whalen, whose district includes part of
central Mesa, said police disrupted a major operation but there are
many additional rings in the city.

"We could probably use an extra 100 police officers to take care of
the drug trade in the city," said Whalen, a retired assistant police
chief. "This has been going on a long time."

Area residents interviewed Wednesday said they were pleased by the
arrests, but many were reluctant to comment on the violent gang.

Police said they believe the gang is responsible for several shootings in Mesa.

"I think it makes a difference," said Mary Ellen Adams of Mesa, who
was donating clothes at a Goodwill store on Wednesday on Main Street
east of Stapley Drive.

"It's not going to solve the problem in one fell swoop. If they don't
do anything, it just gets worse."

Greg Erickson, owner of Sally's Fabrics, a sewing shop that's
operated in the area for 50 years, said he wasn't aware of any overt
drug activity.

But, Erickson said, "The more they take drugs off the street, the better."