Source: Star Tribune, Minneapolis
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Drug raids net 89 arrests, show growing distribution network

>From News Services

NEW YORK For nearly a year, 18wheel semitrailer trucks, driven by
seasoned truckers recruited in Michigan, have been rolling northward from
the Mexican border to New York, delivering tons of concealed cocaine and
marijuana and carrying back millions of dollars in illegal drug profits.

Federal officials said the truckers were dispatched by Mexico's most
powerful drug trafficking syndicate, once headed by the late Amado Carrillo
Fuentes, which set out to seize a share of the New York market, the
country's most lucrative, even when it meant encroaching on territory that
was the domain of Colombian drug cartels.

On Monday, federal lawenforcement officials put a crimp in the smuggling
operation. Two carefully coordinated raids over the past four days produced
89 arrests in 10 cities and netted more than 9 tons of cocaine, 6.4 tons of
marijuana and more than $18 million in cash, officials said.

They said the magnitude of the seizures and number of arrests which took
place in Chicago; Rockford, Ill.; Grand Rapids, Mich.; and San Diego as
well as New York indicate how rapidly Mexican syndicates are overtaking
the dominance of the Colombian networks and represents one of the most
significant shifts in international drugtrafficking in recent years.

Monday's sweeps were not the first involving the Mexican syndicate, and
lawenforcement officials say that their battle with the Mexican
traffickers is not over. Officials promised Monday that more arrests would
follow.

For years previously, Mexican traffickers had transported
Colombianprocessed cocaine into the United States and operated a few
distribution networks on the West Coast.

But lawenforcement officials say the recent arrests highlight the latest
strategic shift by Mexican drug barons, who have graduated from
transporting cocaine and heroin for the Colombians to distributing much of
the drugs themselves.

The same northbound trucks that transported the cocaine often hidden in
crates of refrigerated fruits and vegetables or in sliding compartments in
the roof were used to transport millions of dollars in cash proceeds
back to Mexico, officials said. The trucks, usually driven by people who
did not look Mexican to divert suspicion, typically unloaded contraband at
rented New Jersey warehouses, where it was stored until distribution could
be arranged.

"It's the first time we've seen major shipments by Mexicans to the East
Coast, where they rent their own warehouses and everything," said Thomas
Constantine, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). "All of
that used to be done by the Colombians."

The investigations began last fall and were dubbed Operations Reciprocity
and Limelight.

It is unclear whether the Colombian cartel is ceding territory in New York
willingly. But a DEA report noted that "Colombiabased traffickers appear
willing to turn over some of the tasks of wholesalelevel cocaine
distribution and moneylaundering to their counterparts operating from
Mexico" in order to avoid the daily risks of drug trafficking in cities
such as New York.

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