MEXICAN CARTELS SUPPLY MOST OF ILLEGAL STREET DRUGS IN VENTURA COUNTY

No Evidence Of Cartel Violence Spreading From Mexico To Ventura County

Mexican drug cartels are ultimately responsible for supplying most of
the illegal street drugs in Ventura County, but the cartel violence
raging along Mexico's northern border has not spread here, authorities said.

There's no intelligence to this point, no trends, no indicators that
it's headed here," said Oxnard police Sgt. Bob Camarillo, a member of
the Ventura County Combined Agency Team narcotics task force.

Nearly 6,300 people died in drug cartel violence last year in Mexico,
and more than 1,000 have died so far this year, the Associated Press
reported. Drug cartels also have been blamed for hundreds of recent
kidnappings in Phoenix, and killings in Birmingham, Ala., Atlanta and
Vancouver, according to the AP.

Law enforcement officials in Ventura County say they haven't seen an
increase in violence or kidnappings related to the cartel warfare.

Drug violence is relatively common here, but it usually involves
users who become violent while under the influence, or low-level
dealers, Camarillo said.

We have not had any homicides I'm aware of that are attributed to a
drug cartel," said Ryan Wright, lead prosecutor in the Ventura County
District Attorney's Office's major narcotics division.

In Mexico, the violence stems from internal cartel conflicts, turf
wars for smuggling routes and a crackdown against drug trafficking by
the Mexican government, said Michael Sanders, a spokesman for the
Drug Enforcement Administration in Washington. Sanders said he is not
aware of any battles between cartel factions in the United States.
The spike in drug violence in some U.S. cities is largely due to
internal conflicts within factions, he said.

Still, traffickers linked to Mexican cartels dominate narcotics
supply chains locally and nationwide.

Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the greatest organized
crime threat in the United States, according to the Department of
Justice's "National Drug Threat Assessment" report for 2009. Between
January 2006 and April 2008, law enforcement agencies reported the
presence of Mexican traffickers in 230 U.S. cities., including
Oxnard, according to the National Drug Intelligence Center.

The drug trade in much of Southern California has been dominated by
Mexican organizations for at least a decade, said Special Agent Sarah
Pullen, a DEA spokeswoman in Los Angeles. Most of those organizations
have ties to the cartels, Pullen said.

At least one Ventura County resident was among 781 people arrested
across the United States during the DEA's "Operation Xcellerator," a
21-month campaign targeting Mexico's Sinaloa cartel.

Fausto Elenes-Elenes, 31, of Oxnard was among 13 people named in a
federal indictment describing an alleged conspiracy to smuggle 5
kilograms of cocaine from Mexico to the United States in cars with
secret compartments, according to authorities and court documents. He
was scheduled to appear in federal court today to face felony charges
of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 5 kilograms or
more of cocaine.

Ventura County Combined Agency Team investigators recently traced
cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine found in Oxnard to Mexican
suppliers, prosecutor Wright said. To illustrate, he displayed a
large flow chart tracing links from local dealers to sources, some
covered by Post-it notes due to the continuing investigation.

We are tracing the drugs directly from the Mexican border to Ventura
County," Wright said.

Sgt. Dwayne Heath of the Ventura County Sheriff's Department's
narcotics unit said almost all the marijuana-growing operations in
the Los Padres National Forest are cartel-related.

Contrary to popular belief, the vast majority of methamphetamine in
this area also comes from Mexico, Wright said.

Authorities suspect the violence south of the border is contributing
to an increase in drug prices locally and across the nation.

From January 2007 to the end of 2008, the price of cocaine increased
89 percent nationwide, while methamphetamine prices went up 23
percent, said Brittany Brown, another DEA spokeswoman. Meanwhile, the
purity of both decreased, Brown said.

During the past two years, the local price of cocaine has gone from
about $17,000 a kilogram to more than $20,000, Heath said. Meth has
gone from about $12,000 a pound to more than $15,000, he said.

Wright believes the cartel violence also is making it more difficult
for authorities to get information out of drug dealers arrested here.
Many people involved in the drug trade here are Mexican nationals
with families still in Mexico, and they might fear the cartels more
than going to jail, he said.

Local police have had enough success targeting drug networks to
create some temporary narcotics shortages, but they don't last
because the demand remains high, authorities said. That same demand
is fueling the violent competition for smuggling routes along the
Mexican border, authorities say.

When you buy an 'eight-ball' on the street or a 'teener' or whatever
. you are supporting the cartels," Wright said, using slang for
one-eighth and one-16th ounce packages of narcotics. "That money is
going directly to support that violence."