Chimay Drug Ring Described

A federal agent described the inner workings of a Mexican heroin cartel's
operations in New Mexico during sentencings of seven convicted drug dealers
Monday.

At least one of four Chimay heroin-trafficking rings busted last September
was supplied by a family-based heroin cartel centered in the western
Mexican state of Nayarit, said James Kuykendall, a special agent with the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The Nayarit cartel was hit June 15 by Operation Tar Pit, a nationwide
investigation of the cartel's U.S. operations that resulted in nearly 200
arrests in a dozen cities, including seven in Albuquerque.

The cartel had established two "distribution cells" in Albuquerque and
another in Santa Fe, smuggling black-tar heroin across the border through
Phoenix and on to New Mexico, Kuykendall said.

The Santa Fe cell, headed by 25-year-old Mexican national Jose Enrique
Avila, supplied addicts and local dealers in the Espaola Valley with
black-tar heroin, Kuykendall testified. Avila was arrested in April along
with two other alleged members of the Nayarit cartel operating from Santa Fe.

The local cell used pagers and cellular phones to keep drug dispatchers and
couriers in contact with customers and each other. Raul Villa-Guerra, a
23-year-old Mexican from Nayarit, was one of three couriers that delivered
heroin in the Espaola Valley, Kuykendall testified.

U.S. District Judge Bruce Black sentenced Villa-Guerra to two years and
three months in federal prison Monday.

Villa-Guerra had 4.5 grams of heroin in nine balloons in his mouth when he
was arrested last July, Kuykendall said. His biggest customer in Chimay was
52-year-old Josefa Gallegos, head of one of the local drug rings busted
last September, Kuykendall said.

Three members of Gallegos' organization also were sentenced to prison
Monday, including four years and three months for 31-year-old Halbert
Martinez; three years and five months for 33-year-old Tony Brian Gallegos;
and 21/2 years for 32-year-old Jerome Gallegos.

Josefa Gallegos hasn't been sentenced but faces a six-year prison term and
the forfeiture of her Chimay home under terms of her plea deal.

A local drug courier, 20-year-old Mexican national Aurelio Rodriguez
Zepeda, was beaten to death in Santa Fe in April 1999 and was stuffed in
the trunk of a car belonging to Josefa Gallegos. Two men, 38-year-old James
Rudy Perez and 34-year-old Ronnie Barela, have been charged with Zepeda's
murder in what Santa Fe police have described as a heroin deal gone bad.

Three members of a second Chimay drug ring also received prison sentences
Monday: one year for 21-year-old Larry Martinez, two years for 26-year-old
Jimmy Martinez and two years for 30-year-old Jesse Martinez.

Most of the 35 defendants from the bust last September already have entered
guilty pleas and will receive sentences ranging from probation up to about
seven years in prison.

New Mexico ranks first in the nation in its rate of drug overdose deaths,
with Rio Arriba County leading the state on a per-capita basis. Since 1995,
more than 160 people have died of drug overdoses in Rio Arriba and Santa Fe
counties.

Most of the sentences delivered Monday included required drug treatment.
During his sentencing, Tony Brian Gallegos said he wants to get clean and
has reunited with a son he hasn't seen in 11 years.

"I'm really happy I got caught selling drugs," he said. "I wouldn't trust
myself out there right now."

Jerome Gallegos also asked for drug treatment because "I'm tired of always
being incarcerated and it's time to get my life straight," he said.

The federal investigation relied on several confidential sources, including
two whose roles were described in court Monday.

CS 708 was a heroin addict who made five trips from Phoenix to supply
heroin and cocaine to the local distribution cells in Albuquerque and Santa
Fe, Kuykendall said. He was arrested in May 1999 at the Albuquerque airport
with 21 ounces of heroin and 7 ounces of cocaine.

CS 720, who also abused heroin, served as a dispatcher in Santa Fe and as a
courier between Phoenix and New Mexico, Kuykendall said. Both informants
most likely will receive reductions in their own sentences for helping
authorities.