DRUG CARTEL LINKED TO WAREHOUSE

Drug Cartel Linked To Warehouse Hefty Load Of Marijuana Stashed In
Athens

International drug cartels that use Atlanta as a major narcotics
distribution hub apparently have expanded into Athens, according to
documents filed this week in federal court in Texas.

A tractor-trailer loaded with more than half a ton of marijuana left
McAllen, Texas, on Feb. 17, and three days later arrived at a
warehouse in an undisclosed part of Athens, according to an affidavit
signed Monday by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent.

At the warehouse, several men transferred 1,227 pounds of pot from the
truck and packed it into a U-Haul cargo van, the affidavit states.

They didn't know that the tractor-trailer driver was working for ICE
agents, who watched every step of the way.

A Georgia State Patrol trooper followed the cargo van from the
warehouse, but the driver started to flee and the van crashed on
Interstate 20, where the occupants ran and left behind the marijuana,
the ICE agent's affidavit states.

The affidavit was used to charge an El Paso nightclub owner, Jesus
Daniel Guerrero, with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute
a controlled substance.

ICE called Guerrero a key player in an international drug-trafficking
operation that has shipped loads of marijuana from El Paso to cities
across the nation, using Atlanta as a primary stop.

Atlanta is a major narcotics distribution hub because Interstate 20
connects with Interstate 85, which makes its way to Interstate 95
which passes through major cities along the East Coast, according to
John Comer, associate special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration's Atlanta field division.

"Obviously, Atlanta is situated where it serves the major end points
on the East Coast, like New York, D.C., and Baltimore," he said.

Drug traffickers are "opportunists" who will branch out to neighboring
counties, like Athens-Clarke, when it suits their needs, according
Comer.

"Athens is close enough to Atlanta where (cartels) will feel
comfortable doing business in Athens," the DEA agent said. "If there
is a warehouse available in Athens, they will use it."

Comer didn't know about ICE's investigation that led from Texas to
Athens. Neither did members of the Northeast Georgia Regional Drug
Task Force, according to its supervisor, Athens-Clarke police Lt. Mike
Hunsinger.

But local officials have seen drug-trafficking organizations reach
into Athens.

Last June, drug task force members teamed up with ICE agents to raid a
home on North Bluff Road, where they arrested five suspected Mexican
gang members and seized drugs and forged identity documents.

Hunsinger would not say how much drugs were seized, but officers found
enough methamphetamine to make a federal trafficking case, he said.

Police arrested three suspected Mexican drug traffickers a year
earlier, in November 2007, after authorities intercepted 22 pounds of
marijuana destined for a vacant house in West Athens where the
suspects were waiting.

Investigators searched the house on Sunset Drive and found evidence
that led them to 20 more pounds of pot at another vacant home nearby,
police said.

The fact that the men used vacant houses to receive drug shipments and
the pot came from out of state indicated the men belonged to a Mexican
drug trafficking organization, Hunsinger said.