RAIDS IN FIVE STATES DISRUPT DRUG NETWORKS

Four networks that distributed illegal drugs across the nation for the
Tijuana, Mexico-based Arellano Felix cartel were dismantled Thursday with
raids in California and four other states, law enforcement authorities said.

Thirty-two people were arrested, and arrest warrants were issued for 38
others in the latest round of a continuing investigation called Operation
Vice Grip, local, federal and state officials announced at a press conference.

Search and arrest warrants were served at 30 locations in Southern
California. Others were served in New York, Arizona, Minnesota and Connecticut.

Some 400 law enforcement officers and agents were involved in the raids
targeting major Mexican drug transporters in the Los Angeles area. The drug
cartel shipped narcotics from Los Angeles via commercial airlines and
trucks for distribution in Boston, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, New York, and
Newark, N.J., police said.

But drug shipments have not halted.

"We still see major loads of cocaine coming across the border," said
Michele Leonhard, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in
Los Angeles.