ALLEGED HUB OF DRUG-TRAFFIC CARTEL ATTRACTED SUSPICION, NEIGHBORS SAY

Peyton - A white gate bearing the words "Private Drive No Through
Traffic" greets visitors who come to this 500-acre ranch on the prairie.

Behind the gate, a cowboy races a brown horse through a field of
golden grass toward a blue barn, stables and a racetrack.

Hundreds of trees, planted only a year ago at the ranch's edges, have
already doubled in size, nourished by an irrigation system that
encircles the ranch.

To a passer-by, the spread at 2245 Slocum Road, 20 miles east of
Colorado Springs, looks like typical Colorado. Federal drug officials
say it was the hub for a major cocaine-trafficking organization based
in Mexico.

"We thought something was a little fishy because they planted all the
trees, kind of a camouflage-type thing," said a neighbor who asked not
to be identified. "They built that blue barn back there, and my son,
he'd come home late at night, and he'd see big trucks pulling back in
there - semis."

Federal officials announced Tuesday that they had taken apart the
cartel that used this ranch. Police and federal agents along the Front
Range seized $11 million in cash and property, more than 5,000 pounds
of cocaine and 521 pounds of marijuana. In all, 60 people have been
arrested in Colorado, Illinois, Texas, New York and Mexico since the
investigation began in March 2002.

Federal agents said the case illustrates that Interstate 25 through
Colorado has become a preferred route for drug traffickers because of
its access to Interstate 70 and Interstate 80.

"Within the past two years, there were probably two or three separate
investigations by DEA in Denver that ... were the same routine: drugs
coming up I-25 and being stashed in the Denver area, and then money
coming back the same route. And there's been at least one or two
others in Colorado Springs," said Paul Roach, special agent for the
Drug Enforcement Administration in Colorado Springs.

None of the groups was moving as much cocaine as the Mexico-based
cartel operating out of Peyton, which authorities say brought more
than 1,300 pounds of cocaine a week into the United States.

Federal court records show DEA agents cracked the case by using
court-authorized wiretaps to monitor telephone calls between
operatives in the U.S. and Mexico.

Authorities say the kingpins in the cartel are brothers Miguel Angel
Arriola-Marquez and Oscar Arriola-Marquez and their partner, Saul
Saucedo, known as "the engineer." From Mexico, they allegedly directed
their subordinates to move cocaine to New York and Chicago. Money
movers then transported the money back to the Peyton ranch, where it
was stored until it could be moved - sometimes in bulldozers and plows
- - back to Mexico, court records show.

Miguel Arriola-Marquez and Saucedo were arrested in Mexico, and
extradition proceedings have begun. Oscar Arriola-Marquez is a fugitive.

The owner of the ranch in Peyton, Francisco Dominguez, 46, of Colorado
Springs, has been charged with conspiracy to distribute 5 kilograms or
more of cocaine. Dominguez, who also owns a home in the upscale
Broadmoor Hills neighborhood in Colorado Springs, could not be reached
for comment.

Though federal officials are attempting to seize the ranch, neighbors
say that each Saturday afternoon horse races are held there.

According to federal court records, Dominguez is a naturalized U.S.
citizen from Delicias, Mexico. He owns a pet supply business called El
Edemco, which does business as Lucky 5 Ranch in Colorado Springs.
Agents believe the business "is used, in part, to hide and launder his
drug trafficking proceeds," the affidavit says.

On Wednesday, people in the small town of Peyton marveled that their
small rural community could be the hub for a major drug outfit.

"It's such a small place, that shocks me," said Gina Lamprecht. "I
grew up in Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, and you hear about things like
that there, but not here in the country."