PROJECT DELIVERANCE IN EL PASO: 56 ARRESTED IN RAIDS AS PART OF
NATIONAL ANTI-DRUG PUSH

EL PASO -- Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and other
agencies have arrested 56 people in El Paso as part of a national
effort to quell drug-related violence in Juarez, agents said Thursday.

El Paso's top DEA agent also publicly apologized to two El Paso
County residents who were mistakenly targeted during the raids.

Officials announced the arrests during a news conference Thursday
after keeping details of the raids under wraps for two days.

Agents with the FBI and the DEA, along with sheriff's deputies and
police, carried out the raids as part of Project Deliverance. That
investigation began almost two years ago, targeting the
transportation structure of Mexican drug-trafficking organizations in
the United States, officials said.

In total, agents arrested 429 people in 16 states, including Texas,
New Mexico and Colorado. Of the 56 people arrested in El Paso, 46
were arrested this week. Ten suspects were already in custody.

Federal prosecutors in New Mexico said agents arrested 26 people in
Chaparral, Carlsbad, Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Espanola. In one
Albuquerque home, agents seized 500 pounds of marijuana.

Those arrested included Arturo Herrera-Moreno and Edilberto
Herrera-Moreno, who allegedly ran a drug-smuggling ring based in
Juarez and El Paso. Prosecutors said that, between August 2009 and
March, the men distributed large quantities of cocaine from Mexico to
Atlanta, New York and Chicago, and they returned large amounts of
cash to Mexico through El Paso.

"It's a broader strategy to reduce the overall availability of
illegal drugs" in the United States, said Joseph Arabit, special
agent in charge of the DEA in El Paso. Arabit also said he hoped the
arrests would have a "direct impact" on the warring Juarez and
Sinaloa drug cartels.

More than 2,200 suspects have been arrested since the start of the
federal investigation.

U.S. Attorney John Murphy, of the Western District of Texas, said the
operation aimed to respond to violence in Juarez, and to stem the
flow of weapons from the United States into Mexico.

"Our attempt is to do what we could to target the cartels, in
particular two major cartels causing the violence in Juarez," Murphy
said. "In this process, we have been extremely successful."

Charges against those arrested include conspiracy, drug smuggling,
money laundering and firearms violations.

Agents in total said they seized 69 tons of marijuana, 2.5 tons of
cocaine, 1,410 pounds of heroin and 1,262 pounds methamphetamines.
Agents also seized $154 million in cash, 501 weapons such as
.50-caliber guns and AK-47s, and 527 vehicles allegedly used for
transporting drugs. Murphy said most of the weapons seized originated
from the northern United States near the Canadian border.

During the news conference, Arabit apologized to a woman who was
wrongly arrested Wednesday in a raid at her apartment in Central El Paso.

Arabit said agents arrested the woman and took her to the DEA offices
on the West Side, but soon realized that she was not the suspect they
were after.

Arabit said he also would personally apologize to Gonzalo Garcia, a
court bailiff, whose Horizon City home was raided in error.

"I accept full responsibility for it," Arabit said. "I regret that
this happened."

Arabit said he was scheduled to meet with Garcia on Thursday
afternoon or this morning. Garcia declined to comment Thursday.

Agents also forwarded information to Mexican authorities regarding
possible wanted suspects living there, Arabit said.

On Thursday, Mexican federal police announced the arrest of Carlos
Ramon Castro Rocha on suspicion of distributing cocaine and heroin in
the United States.

Mexican police said Castro was one of the main targets of Project
Deliverance because of his role as a major distributor of heroin
since 2002. Police said Castro was tied to at least 40 separate
investigations in the United States and Mexico, and was responsible
for smuggling between 150 to 200 pounds of heroin from Sinaloa into
the United States.