JOINT MEXICO, U.S. COLOMBIA RAID DISMANTLES COLOMBIAN DRUG NETWORK IN MEXICO

MEXICO CITY - Working in a joint operation, U.S., Mexican and Colombian
police arrested nine men, most Colombians, who allegedly ran the main
distribution platform for Colombian drugs in Mexico, breaking what one
prosecutor described Tuesday as "the backbone" of the drug trade here.

The raids dismantled the organization and cut off one of the main sources
of supply for Mexican druglords, Mexico's top organized crime prosecutor,
Jose Santiago Vasconcelos, told reporters.

"This is strangling their sources of supply," Vasconcelos told a news
conference in Mexico City. "It is a very serious blow to all these (drug)
organizations." Most of the drugs apparently were sent to Mexico for
shipment to the U.S. market.

In the joint operation, known as "Toro II," the leaders of the ring - five
Colombians, one Venezuelan and three Mexicans - were arrested between
Friday and Sunday.

The organization allegedly was led by Colombian Jose Antonio Arias Salas -
now under arrest - and used maritime routes passing by Colombia, Venezuela,
Jamaica, Mexico, part of the Caribbean and the United States. "This was a
kind of superstructure that sold drugs wholesale to the cartels,"
Vasconcelos said.

As part of the investigation, authorities seized 1.5 tons of marijuana in
the port of Veracruz on Dec. 11. The organization transported the drugs on
board a boat that originated in Barcelona, Spain, and made a stop in
Jamaica, Vasconcelos said.

He said the eight-month-long operation included raids and arrests in the
United States and Colombia, but gave no specific information on actions in
those countries.

"Our three nations detected this (organization) as one of the priority
targets in breaking the structure of distribution throughout the
continent," Vasconcelos said.

"This is going to provoke a crisis in the Mexican cartels," he said of the
operation, which also netted five vehicles, one weapon and aircraft
navigation charts for Venezuela, Jamaica and Mexico.