DRUG TRAFFICKING IS A FAMILY AFFAIR by Jamie Dettmer
Copyright (c) 1997, News World Communications, Inc.

Having successfully contained the uproar in Congress over
the president's decision to recertify Mexico as a reliable
ally in the war against drugs, the Clinton
administration is now eager to demonstrate that President
Ernesto Zedillo's government can indeed be trusted to do
the right thing. As well as pressuring the Mexicans to
crack down on narcorelated corruption, Washington has
requested formally the extradition of 60 accused
narcotraffickers, including Oscar Malherbe de Leon, an
ally of the country's top drug kingpin, Amado Carillo
Fuentes. A fullcourt press has been launched by the
Justice Department and administration aides to persuade the
Mexican government that it is in its best interests to be
forthcoming.

Whether Mr. Zedillo will respond remains to be seen
the depressing likelihood is at best only a handful of the
wanted traffickers will appear in court this side of the
Rio Grande. In the meantime, maybe the administration
should roll up its sleeves and start at home, by arresting
Mexican narcotraffickers who live or have lovenests in
America or regularly visit the U.S. on shopping sprees and
business trips including the Juarez cartel leader, Amado
Carillo Fuentes, himself.

While Mexico may have little to boast of in the war
against drugs, America is hardly distinguishing itself
either. Evidence mounts that the top narcotraffickers
have little to fear from the United States. According to
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents I've talked
to, Mr. Carillo still slips periodically across the
Southwest border for the nightlife of Las Vegas and Los
Angeles and for investment discussions with associates in
Dallas and Houston. Despite the fact that he and his
associates own NAFTArelated businesses and vast tracts of
land in Texas, New Mexico and even Arkansas, no
assetforfeiture efforts have been unleashed against them
by the DEA or other American lawenforcement agencies. Mr.
Carillo isn't the only Mexican narcotrafficker who appears
able to thumb a nose at America. A welter of criminal
intelligence is held on both sides of the Southwest border
on the Zaragoza Fuentes family of Juarez and El Paso one
of the five main families behind Mr. Carillo's cartel.
Even so, U.S. law enforcement still allows 18wheeler
tankers owned by the family to cross the border with little
inspection. At least one Zaragoza firm is a participant in
the U.S. Customs Service's Cargo Carrier Initiative, a
tenyearold importexport facilitation scheme that speeds
trucks owned by participating companies through border
redtape and inspections.

An old Juarez family, the Zaragoza Fuenteses are
related by blood to Mr. Carillo and by marriage to the
cartel's original 1980s leadership. Their story is a rags
to riches one the family's late patriarch, Miguel Sr.,
started out as a kitchencabinet salesman. He had four
sons Miguel, now 62, Eduardo, 59, Tomas, 52, Ricardo, 43
and one daughter Irma. The Zaragozas now own the
world's largest propanegas transport business and they're
among Mexico's main milk suppliers. Their commercial
empire stretches from the U.S. through Central America and
extends east to the Bahamas and Germany.

A 35page U.S. multiagency intelligence analysis I've
secured states: "The ZaragozaFuentes family heads one of
the world's largest suppliers of LP (liquid propane) gas.
Through a myriad of companies, the family operates and
controls business interests ranging from LP distributing to
maritime shipping, trucking, aviation, land holdings,
management companies and banking interests." Family
companies, some of which are registered in the U.S., are
licensed by PEMEX, the stateowned Mexican oil industry, to
supply propane to the whole of Mexico. But "behind the
vertically integrated companies, the horizontally related
companies, the real companies, the shell companies, the web
of shared addresses and the recurring names is a second
empire . . . built on narcotics smuggling, money
laundering, income tax evasion, export violations and
weapons smuggling," says the intelligence analysis.

Both Mexican and U.S. authorities initially launched
separate probes into the family in October 1990 after
Californiabased Customs officials discovered four tons of
cocaine in a Hidrogas de Juarez tanker owned by the
Zaragozas. But inquiries petered out. In 1994, a joint
U.S.Mexican moneylaundering investigation into the family
called Operation Cobra floundered when Mexican
lawenforcement agencies refused to cooperate.

South of the Rio Grande, the Zaragozas are politically
wellconnected a classified U.S. Customs report notes
the family employs relatives of former Mexican attorney
general Oscar Flores Sanchez, including his son, Oscar
Flores Tapia. DEA agents allege good political connections
explain the Zaragozas' immunity in Mexico. But what about
north of the border? In spite of a major IRS tax violation
case against members of the family in Texas and seven years
of detailed narcotics allegations against them, again no
assetforfeiture efforts have been mounted by American
authorities. This has led some former and current DEA and
Customs agents to complain about lack of direction and
political will in the U.S. war against drugs.

Jamie Dettmer is senior editor of Insight.