COULD MEXICO'S DRUG WAR SPREAD TO THE CENTRAL VALLEY?

Experts Say Cartels Have Strong Ties To Drugs In County

We've heard the news stories about violence and outright warfare
between Mexican law enforcement agencies and rival drug cartels there.

More than a dozen people were killed during a gunbattle between the
rival Tijuana and Sinaloa cartels a year ago. More than 100 civilians
were injured or killed in September when two hand grenades were
thrown into a crowd at a Mexican Independence Day celebration in the
state of Michoaca8n.

Add to that numerous other murders, some involving torture and even
beheadings more than 440 in the last three months of 2008 alone,
according to the Associated Press.

Since the cartel wars erupted in 1996, the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration estimates the number of people killed at between 7,000
and 10,000, among them Mexican soldiers and ranking government officials.

Some of that violence appears to have spilled over into the United
states, according to the DEA.

Earlier this month, five men were found dead their throats cut after
they had apparently been tortured in a Columbiana, Ala., apartment.
Authorities suspect they had ties to Mexico's Gulf Cartel.

Arizona has experienced a rise in drug-related kidnappings, more than
300 last year, said John Donnelly, resident agent in charge of the
DEA's Fresno office.

"And these are drug traffickers kidnapping families of other drug
traffickers," usually to get money or drugs owed, he said.

"There's a lot of concerns about this," Donnelly said, describing
Mexico's growing drug war as a strategic concern for United States.
Drug influence in the Valley

While the violence doesn't appear to have spread yet to Tulare County
or other parts of the Valley, the Mexican drug cartels themselves
have strong ties to this area.

In the Sierra foothills, marijuana is grown in secluded areas
including the national park and forest land '>bankrolled by Mexican drug lords.

The drug lords have found marijuana an increasingly profitable crop,
and they've developed new strains that offer more potent highs and
allow more harvests, said Tulare County Sheriff's Lt. Mike Beaudreaux.

On the Valley floor, illegal methamphetamine labs tied to the Mexican
cartels that years ago were a frequent problem are turning up far
less often. Now the cartels are sending an increasing amount of the
drug across the border from Mexico along with heroin and cocaine
despite heightened border security after Sept. 11, 2001.

Ben Buford, senior special agent in charge of the Fresno office for
the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, said most of the street
drugs his agency encounters in the Valley come from Mexico.

Certainly, some of those drugs end up sold on the streets to addicts
and users, and that has triggered rises in other crimes from
robberies to identity theft committed by people looking to make quick
cash to score their next fixes, authorities say.

But proximity to Mexico's border and the Highway 99 corridor have
made Tulare County and other Valley communities prime locations for
drug distribution operations.

"What I'm seeing is a lot of the Central Valley particularly Tulare
County is being used as a stashing location for organizations,
including [from] Mexico and Southern California. Kind of a way
station, if you will," Donnelly said.

"They will park drugs here for a little bit of time ... rural ranches
and residences that are hard [for others] to watch. You can see cars
coming down the road easily."

From these sites, the drugs move to other parts of the country.

"[Highway] 99, that's your major thoroughfare from point A to point
B," said Beaudreaux, noting that marijuana grown here has been seized
as far away as Chicago.

Donnelly said he has reports of other illegal drugs seized in
Chicago, Ohio, Minnesota, Kansas City, Seattle, Tacoma, Hawaii,
Cincinnati and Kentucky with evidence indicating those drugs came
through Tulare County.

DEA officials say Tulare-area drug dealers had ties to one of the
biggest drug seizures ever in Maui, involving 20 pounds of cocaine
and eight pounds of crystal methamphetamine seized during a January 2007 raid.

Federal prosecutors contend the drugs were supplied by Eustogio
Florez of Tulare and a group of accomplices.

A suspect in the Hawaii case claimed that the illegal drugs had been
purchased from the group in California. The DEA launched an
investigation here that involved undercover agents reportedly buying
drugs from Florez and some companions, according to federal court records.

Florez was indicted in April 2008 on federal drug distribution and
possession charges, along with Hortencia Flores, Reyes
Chaparro-Flores, Rodolfo F. Suarez Jr., Sylvia Lopez, Pioquinto
Larios Santacruz and Abel Remigio-Onofre, according to the U.S.
Attorney's Office in Fresno.

All are awaiting trials.

Another suspect in the case, Leobardo Gonzalez-Gonzalez, pled guilty
in October to unlawful use of a telephone to facilitate a drug
felony, conspiracy to distribute drugs and possessing drugs with
intent to distribute.

He was sentenced in January to two years, which he'd already served
in federal custody, followed by 12 months of supervised release.

Trafficking hierarchy

While Mexican cartels are deeply embedded in the drug trade here, it
appears that more often than not their influence isn't direct. They
appear to be leaving local dealers and distributors in charge so long
as the money flows south.

Even the direct influence the cartels reportedly have over street
gangs in Los Angeles and some other major cities and border
communities doesn't exist here, law enforcement officials said.

" The local gangs in Visalia aren't as organized as what people think
of gangs," said Visalia police Sgt. Ed Lynn.

"If you look at the big picture, there's always layers. In any drug
trafficking organizations, there are several layers" and that applies
to the illegal drug operations here and their connections to the
cartels, Buford said.

"The bottom ends of the trafficking organizations, they are there,
but they are less organized, less defined," Donnelly said. "There are
[drug] handlers that may not realize they are associated with the cartel.

"I've arrested guys who know the drugs come from Los Angeles and not
realize it was made in a plant in Bolivia, processed in a lab in
Colombia, transported in a truck to Mexico, sent in a truck to Los
Angeles and driven in a car to Tulare County," he said. "They don't
know if they get drugs from the Sinaloa or the Gulf Cartel."

In this area, most of the illegal drugs come from the Sinaloa Cartel,
Donnelly said.

"The head boss in Sinaloa isn't going to know the guy in the hills
east of Porterville with his 10,000 [marijuana] plants," he added.
"Each subtrafficker is responsible for building his own operation."

Will Mexico's internal drug war change that?

It's one of the many questions federal and state law enforcement
officials have as they wait to see how Mexico's drug wars will affect
the United States.

Whether that war will result in violence here or a shift in who
supplies drugs to local dealers and traffickers remains to be seen.

"It's something that's discussed at the executive level. It's a
concern," Buford said, adding that there's no telling when or if
something happens here.

"It could happen tomorrow. We could have a mess. A mass killing
tomorrow," he said. "It would shock me. The Central Valley up to this
point, we've been lucky."