300-plus arrested in US drug raids
Published 5:37 pm Thursday, October 22, 2009
More than 300 suspects have been arrested in a series of drug raids across the country that law enforcement officials say is the largest single strike at a Mexican drug cartel operating in the United States.
The arrests are aimed at the U.S. operations of the La Familia cartel, two officials said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the results of the operation.
Over the past two days, more than 3,000 federal agents and police officers carried out arrests in more than a dozen states, as part of a long-running anti-drug operation that has netted nearly 1,200 arrests over almost four years.
In the latest legal assault on La Familia, a New York grand jury has indicted an alleged cartel leader, Servando Gomez-Martinez. He is linked to one of the more brazen acts of cartel violence in Mexico.
In July, after a dozen Mexican law enforcement officers were found murdered, officials say Gomez-Martinez publicly announced his membership in La Familia and said the cartel was locked in a battle with Mexican police.
Federal law enforcement officials, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, plan to announce the latest results of the operation against the cartels on Thursday. The suspects face a combination of federal and state charges.
Many of the charges are centered on the cartel’s operations pumping large quantities of methamphetamine into the United States, and other drug distribution charges involve cocaine and marijuana, the officials said.
Project Coronado has targeted La Familia, a drug-trafficking cartel based in the state of Michoacan in southwestern Mexico.
The cartel claims it opposes the sale of meth to Mexicans, but supports its consumption by Americans.
The officials said states where arrests were made or charges filed include California, Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington state.
