KEY LINK IN MEXICAN DRUG-SMUGGLING RING GETS 35-YEAR TERM

A member of a Mexican drug ring that smuggled 11 tons of marijuana into
southern and northern Indiana was sentenced in Evansville on Friday to 35
years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Morrison said Jose Antonio Trejo-Pasaran,
26, was one of the lieutenants in a "big-time" group of Mexicans who began
smuggling marijuana to the Goshen and Ligonier area in 1996.

Operating out of Luna's Lounge in Ligonier, Trejo-Pasaran, using the name
Isidro Mirelez, helped distribute more than four tons of marijuana,
authorities say.

In early 1998, Trejo-Pasaran and an associate, Francisco "Pancho" Ramirez,
moved their distribution network to Princeton in southern Indiana to avoid
arrest.

According to authorities and trial testimony, the two men opened a car
dealership, Ramirez Auto Sales, to launder money from the smuggling of
marijuana into southern Indiana.

Marijuana was smuggled from Mexico to the McAllen, Texas, area. From there,
it was shipped to Monroe, N.C., and then to southern Indiana. The smuggling
ring enlisted the help of a manager and truck driver of a Mexican food
business. Using a company truck, which was distributing legitimate supplies
to an Evansville plant, the employees moved about 20 shipments, weighing up
to 800 pounds, to southwest Indiana.

The marijuana was repackaged at several sites throughout southwestern
Indiana, including a Haubstadt horse farm. Then it was warehoused at
several places in Patoka until Ramirez and Trejo-Pasaran could sell it.
From late 1998 until Aug. 10, 2000, about seven tons of marijuana were
smuggled into southern Indiana, according to U.S. Attorney Susan W. Brooks.

Once the marijuana was sold, some profits were wired to co-conspirators in
Mexico. Other money was stuffed inside the tires of used cars, which were
trucked from Ramirez Auto Sales to a dealership in Progresso, Texas, and
then taken to Mexico, where the money was distributed and the cars were sold.

The alleged ringleader of the operation is still at large.

U.S. District Judge Richard L. Young sentenced Trejo-Pasaran on drug
trafficking, money laundering and firearms charges. He is expected to be
deported to Mexico after he's released from prison.

Charges against Ramirez were dismissed in 2000 after authorities learned of
his death. Informants indicated to the government that he had been killed
in South Texas or Mexico, according to an attorney who represented another
member of the smuggling operation.