41 PEOPLE ALLEGEDLY LINKED TO MEXICAN DRUG CARTELS ARE INDICTED

The Suspects Include Emmanuel Sanchez, a Former Deputy Sheriff From
Texas Who Was Found With $950,000 Hidden in His Pickup During a 2007
Traffic Stop in Georgia, Federal Authorities Say.

Federal authorities in Atlanta announced grand jury indictments
Wednesday against 41 people allegedly connected to violent Mexican
drug cartels, including a former deputy sheriff from Texas stopped
with nearly $1 million in cash hidden in his pickup on a Georgia highway.

The trafficking operation moved hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and
marijuana from the Southwest border to Atlanta, authorities said. It
also involved extensive money laundering operations in which millions
of dollars in drug proceeds allegedly were funneled through U.S.
banks back to Mexico.

Authorities said about $22 million in cash was seized in raids,
making it a record amount for an Atlanta case. It comes at a time
when the cartels are pushing hard to solidify a hold on the
Southeastern U.S. and other metropolitan areas far north of the Rio Grande.

"Drug trafficking is all about money," said Reginael D. McDaniel,
special agent in charge of the IRS criminal investigation division.
"Seizing the dirty cash and the assets of these illegal organizations
hits criminals where it hurts the most. It deprives them of their profits."

One of the more significant arrests was of Emmanuel Sanchez, a deputy
sheriff from Hidalgo County, Texas. He was stopped in January 2007 by
a Georgia state trooper while driving on Interstate 20. Dressed in
plainclothes, he was transporting a large amount of heavy equipment
in his pickup. He showed the trooper his deputy sheriff's badge once
he was pulled over, officials said.

But after inspecting the truck, authorities said, they found $950,000
in cash hidden in the door and in a duffel bag on the back seat.
Sanchez told them he had found the cash in a bag behind a trash bin
at a Hooters restaurant, Georgia State Patrol spokesman Larry Schnall
said in a published report.

Sanchez, whom the cartel operatives reportedly dubbed "Sheriff,"
resigned from his post before the indictment was filed Sept. 2 and
unsealed Wednesday in Atlanta.

In another traffic stop last year in Georgia, officials found more
than $13 million in drug cash in a secret compartment under the floor
of a livestock truck. The indictment identified the suspects in that
incident as Jesus Flores Sr. and Jesus Flores Jr.