1,900 MEXICAN CARTEL MEMBERS NABBED IN DRUGS, MONEY PROBE

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, following a 20-month
nationwide investigation, said Thursday it has arrested more than
1,900 members of a Mexican drug cartel as part of an operation known
as "Project Delirium."

DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart described the arrests, along
with the seizure of $62 million in U.S. currency and nearly 25,000
pounds of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines, as the
largest ever against the La Familia Michoacana cartel, one of Mexico's
most violent drug gangs.

"Through their violent drug trafficking activities, including their
hallmark of supplying most of the methamphetamine imported into the
United States, La Familia is responsible for recklessly and violently
destroying countless lives on both sides of the border," Mrs. Leonhart
said.

"The strong joint efforts with our Mexican and U.S. law enforcement
partners are crippling this brutal organization by capturing its
leaders, strangling its distribution networks, and relentlessly
pursuing its members and those who facilitate them," she said.

Project Delirium is the result of information gathered during the
course of a previous effort targeting La Familia, known as "Project
Coronado," which culminated in 2009. The new operation involved more
than 300 federal, state, local and foreign law enforcement agencies
through the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces.

Arrests have been made or charges have been unsealed in Washington,
D.C., and 12 states from California to North Carolina. Mexican law
enforcement authorities arrested one of La Familia's reputed leaders,
Jose de Jesus Mendez-Vargas, who also is known as "The Monkey," based
on Mexican charges.

Those arrested in the U.S. were charged with conspiracy to distribute
methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana; distribution of
methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana; conspiracy to import narcotics
into the United States; and money laundering.

"Through coordinated and strategic efforts like Project Delirium, we
are disrupting the operations of Mexican drug cartels in the United
States and Mexico," said Deputy Attorney General James Cole. "The
arrests and seizures we are announcing today have stripped La Familia
of its manpower, its deadly product and its profit, and helped make
communities large and small safer."

John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), said law enforcement officials in the United States, Mexico and
around the world "are cooperating at unprecedented levels," adding
that there is a "willingness - like never before - to work
hand-in-hand to fight the cartels, the criminal enterprises, and the
violent gangs that threaten the peace and security of people on both
sides of the border."

Shawn Henry, the FBI's executive assistant director for the Criminal,
Cyber, Response and Services Branch, said investigations such as
Project Delirium "target the dangers these organizations pose to the
United States and Mexico" and that the FBI, working with its federal
and international law enforcement partners, "will continue to commit
our resources to combat the threat posed by transnational criminal
enterprises."

The La Familia gang operates in the Mexican state of Michoacan,
located along the Pacific Ocean west of Mexico City and northwest of
Acapulco. Although it smuggles cocaine, marijuana and heroin, it has
become infamous for its distribution of methamphetamine, winning and
maintaining smuggling routes into the United States by cutting off the
heads and limbs of its rivals.

Another of the gang's reputed leaders, Nazario Moreno, also known as
"The Craziest One," reportedly has written his own bible and many of
his 1,500 followers hold prayer meetings before attacking or killing
their rivals or Mexican military and police authorities.