HUGE METH SEIZURE IN MESQUITE COMES ON HEELS OF MASSIVE SWEEP

A day after federal agents and police across the country seized 729
pounds of methamphetamine in the largest crackdown ever on a Mexican
drug cartel, local agents made a big find: 300 more pounds of meth
in a house in Mesquite.

That load, worth about $7 million, is the largest single seizure of
methamphetamine in North Texas, according to local Drug
Enforcement Administration agents. More than half of all meth
confiscated around the nation in recent days has now been found in
North Texas.

"It was packaged and ready to move," said James Capra, head of the
Dallas DEA office. "This represents what Dallas has become for the
cartels, a place to stage it and move it out. It's very significant."

The Mesquite bust resulted from intelligence – including drug ledgers
and other secret cartel documents – gathered from the arrests of
nearly 90 people during last week's massive Project Coronado sweep
targeting the violent La Familia cartel.

Based in Michoacán, Mexico, the cartel focuses on methamphetamine
smuggling. It is known for extreme violence south of the border,
where its rivals are often decapitated to send a message.

Nationwide, Coronado resulted in more than 300 arrests and 729 pounds
of methamphetamine seized last Wednesday and Thursday. In North Texas,
agents and police found 220 pounds of methamphetamine worth about
$5 million after serving more than 40 search warrants.

Federal and local police agencies trumpeted the sweep as a major
victory in their efforts to get meth off the streets.

Friday's 300 additional pounds was an unexpected surprise. DEA agents
found the latest record-setting stash after serving a search warrant
on the house in the 3300 block of Shorewood Drive.

The home is in an older, quiet neighborhood just north of Interstate 30
near Gus Thomasson Road – the kind of neighborhood traffickers have for
years preferred for drug and gun stashes, investigators say.

Agents found the 300 pounds of methamphetamine concealed in airtight
tubs behind a false wall of a utility shed.

When agents questioned a person living there, Jose Guadalupe Candanosa,
he told them that another man charged in the Project Coronado cases paid
him to hide the drugs. Candanosa, 43, is being held at the Seagoville
federal prison, accused of possession with intent to distribute
methamphetamine. He has no attorney and could not be reached.

Mesquite police hadn't been called to the house all year.

"That's absolutely insane," a 27-year-old neighbor said when she learned
of the amount of drugs in the house she's lived near for a year. She did
not want her name published out of fear of retaliation.

"It's a really quiet neighborhood with older people," she said. "This is
super shocking. I never knew it was going on."

She said that there are "like, eight cars" at the house at all times, but
not much unusual foot traffic.

People at the house Tuesday declined to talk about the bust.

Capra said that his agents have seen lower-level cartel associates working
in jobs such as mechanics, lawn men, cooks and busboys, tow truck drivers
and construction workers – all lured in by the promise of big money or
family ties.

"The purpose is to fit in," Capra said. "They go to work, raise their kids.
They don't want to bring attention to what they're doing."

Stash houses in quiet neighborhoods often go undetected until there's a
bust,
leaving neighbors feeling unsettled.

"I get questions all the time from the different communities: How do we
tell?"
said Dallas police Deputy Chief Jan Easterling, narcotics commander. "A lot
of these people aren't attracting the attention with the heavy foot
traffic,
so there are no obvious red flags."

More worrisome than cash and drug caches are stores of guns.

Federal agents say that La Familia members smuggled high-powered weapons
purchased here into Mexico. Court documents filed in Fort Worth say that
one
La Familia cell was smuggling up to 50 weapons per week, including powerful
50-caliber guns, using straw buyers.

At times, a La Familia enforcer in Mexico was on the phone with the straw
buyers during the gun purchases, negotiating prices, documents show.

Little is known publicly about the dozens of people arrested in the La
Familia
bust last week, including its cell leaders, who typically come up from
Mexico
with the intent to deal drugs. One of the La Familia cell leaders is
believed
to be a breeder of thoroughbred horses who spent his free time playing
volleyball
when he wasn't being followed to church by federal agents.

The leaders recruit others to package, store and smuggle the narcotics
around
the area to suppliers and customers. "Lookouts" are used for
counter-surveillance
during particularly large transactions, court documents show.

Investigators, using wiretaps, must parse the lingo of the deal. One set of
accused La Familia associates based in Fort Worth chose a mechanics'
motif when
allegedly referring to drugs – ordering "motors" from a "shop" or a
"warehouse."

Investigators believe methamphetamine trafficking is increasing. That's
because
meth sells for about $23,000 per pound, compared with about $10,000 per
pound for
cocaine. A typical user might buy from a fraction of a gram to more than
an ounce,
spending anywhere from $20 to $1,500.

Prices have gone up because production has shifted south of the border.
Changes in
American drug laws make raw ingredients harder to come by in the U.S.
This has led
to large manufacturing operations, or "super labs," in Mexico, where
ingredients
are easier to get.

Cartels can charge a premium because the drugs now must be smuggled over
the border.

There is also a big demand in the U.S. for methamphetamine as the market
for cocaine
is on the decline, experts say. That is partly the result of the ramped-up
enforcement activity on cocaine traffickers in recent years

One of the draws of methamphetamine is that its sped-up effects can last
for up to
12 hours, investigators say. Users return to the drug because it is so
highly
addictive.

"It was once considered a poor man's kind of drug because it was
homegrown," said
Terri Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Dallas DEA office.

"But now, it's lost that stigma."