NO ACTIVE-DUTY TROOPS IN DRUG RING, ARMY SHRILLS

EL PASO - Authorities continued an investigation Tuesday of a national
drug ring whose tentacles may have reached into Fort Bliss.

U.S. Border Patrol Supervisory Agent Sal Nieto said those with
military ties were heavily involved in the drug operations, "not just
victims of circumstance." The extent of those ties, however, remained
unclear.

"There were no active-duty soldiers involved in this drug ring," Fort
Bliss spokeswoman Jean Offutt said. "This doesn't mean Fort Bliss
people weren't asked questions about this case and that there could
have been ties, but there were no active soldiers involved."

"Operation Ladykiller," so named because the ringleader allegedly
recruited women to haul drugs stashed in vehicles to several Southern
states, was revealed Monday.

None of the 12 people arrested was on active duty, authorities said.
As many as 50 others are sought.

Allegations of military ties stem from a multi-agency investigation.
Officials say the drug organization, spanning from West Texas to South
Carolina, smuggled more than 6,000 pounds of marijuana and 198 pounds
of cocaine during the last three years.

"Prior military we know of for sure, and dependents and people
associated with the military," Agent Nieto said. "The investigation
revealed that they were prior military who still have ties to Fort
Bliss."

Agent Nieto said investigators are examining what occurred at the
fort.

He said no evidence suggests that drugs were stored at the fort, nor
does it indicate that any military gear was used to haul the drugs
from the fort. Authorities are still trying to determine whether any
drug loading took place at the fort.

"There was activity on the base itself in terms of the operation,"
Agent Nieto said.

Those activities include the fact that some of the people connected to
the drug organization met at the fort and some of the vehicles seen
entering and leaving the fort are part of the investigation.

Ms. Offutt confirmed that the only active-duty personnel live at the
fort. She added that post decals are issued to active military,
retired military, spouses and civilians who work on the fort.

"Just because you have a post decal doesn't mean you live on Fort
Bliss," Ms. Offut said. "Everybody in El Paso has ties to Fort Bliss
in one way or another. It covers a whole gamut of relationships."

According to statistics from Ms. Offutt, about 12,000 soldiers and
7,000 civilians work at the fort. An average of 12 percent of the
Army's soldiers are women.

Of the 12,000 soldiers at Fort Bliss, 60 percent are married. There
are 8,000 family members who live at the fort and 14,000 who do not
live at the fort.

On Monday, Drug Enforcement Administration officials announced the
arrests of five residents from El Paso and seven others from
Birmingham, Ala., Tuscaloosa, Ala., West Memphis, Ark., and Atlanta.

El Paso resident Anthony White, who is allegedly the ringleader, also
has "military connections," authorities said.

Mr. White and his organization are accused of pocketing about $6
million in drug sales during the last three years. The organization
controlled about 75 percent of the marijuana distributed in the
Birmingham metropolitan area, authorities said.

Mr. White and several of the other defendants are scheduled for a
detention hearing Wednesday at the federal courthouse in El Paso.

According to the indictment, as much as $65,770 in cash was to be
exchanged between defendants in the case. The money represented the
proceeds from drug sales and was intended to be used to purchase
additional drugs, the indictment says.

Authorities seized some of the money before it changed hands. Other
amounts that varied from $1,000 to $3,000 were exchanged between the
defendants in the form of wire transactions.

The investigation began last year after three drug seizures at a U.S.
Border Patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, east of El Paso.

Several other seizures since then also followed a similar pattern:
female drivers in rental cars hauling drugs hidden in door panels and
other compartments, said Sean Henry, the case agent for the Drug
Enforcement Administration.

The drugs are thought to have come from Mexico.

"We haven't identified any particular cartel. We still have leads on
several of them," Agent Henry said.

He said that Fort Bliss makes up a large segment of the community and
that the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division at Fort Bliss was
brought in to help in the investigation as a cooperative measure.

"The sharing of information between agencies was the key thing in this
case," Agent Henry said. "The cooperation from CID was significant."