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 News from Around the Americas | December 2006 
Pot Bust a Giant Loss for Smugglers
 Mike Glenn & Anita Hassan - Houston Chronicle
| | Harris County sheriff's Lt. Timothy Navarre stands guard over 15,000 pounds of marijuana seized late Wednesday at a warehouse in northwest Harris County. (Brett Coomer/Chronicle) |
Authorities charged a truck driver with narcotics trafficking Thursday after seizing more than 7 tons of marijuana, highlighting what experts described as Harris County's leading role as a distribution center for illicit drugs.
An anonymous tip led drug agents to the drab warehouse in northwest Harris County late Wednesday, where they said they found one of the largest marijuana stashes they've seen in recent memory.
Inside wooden crates were 502 bundles of marijuana that had been wrapped in plastic and coated with calcium carbonate to mask the odor. Authorities said the 15,000-pound haul had a street value of $25 million to $40 million.
"We've always been a major hub for narcotics trafficking," said Houston Police Capt. Stephen Smith. "Almost everything from Mexico comes through Houston."
Some of the same traits that draw legitimate businesses to the Houston area — including a transportation infrastructure that includes major airports, seaports and easy freeway access — are also attractive to drug cartels, he said.
The marijuana bales most likely were smuggled across the border from Mexico, investigators said, and were brought into Houston from the Rio Grande Valley.
"They were probably going to break it down into smaller loads and then transport them, probably through Atlanta, and to the East Coast," said Stan Furce, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent who heads the local High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area office.
Following the tip, Harris County Sheriff's deputies converged on the warehouse in the 7300 block of West Road. They spotted Louis Mendez, 29, driving away in a tractor-trailer about 10 p.m. Wednesday.
They noticed Mendez wasn't using his headlights. That gave deputies a reason to stop the truck, which they searched, finding a small amount of cocaine and marijuana.
'It's a major hub'
A door leading to the warehouse was unlocked. The deputies found a Ford Crown Victoria, an AR-15 rifle and several crates.
"I've never seen a load of marijuana as big as this," said Harris County Sheriff's Lt. J.D. Glesmann, who has investigated narcotics trafficking since 1993.
Bruce Bagley, a professor at the University of Miami who studies narcotics trafficking, said the haul was one of the largest he has heard of.
"It shows a high degree of confidence (among the smugglers) because it is uncommon for such a large (amount) of marijuana to be moved," Bagley said.
Investigators have tracked narcotics from Houston to Atlanta, parts of Florida and along the Eastern seaboard to New York.
"We have stuff that comes through town and we have stuff that is warehoused here," Furce said. "It's a major hub."
The South Texas corridor, beginning in Laredo and stretching along U.S. 59 into Houston and beyond, is a major path for narcotics trafficking into the U.S., said John Lindsay, regional director for DARE, the drug education office.
"The majority of it (narcotics smuggling) is going to be by land," Lindsay said.
Cartels, drug gangs
The bus lines that bring people from Mexico to Houston also have been used by gangs to smuggle drugs into the country.
A likely suspect is a traveler without any luggage who has a one-way ticket.
"We seize a lot of money coming through there," Smith said.
A Mexico-based criminal gang called the Gulf Cartel is behind most of the narcotics smuggling leading to Houston and throughout southeast Texas, authorities said.
Colombian drug gangs have been increasingly relying on Mexico-based groups to handle the smuggling operations.
"They pay a surcharge and the Mexicans bring it in," Furce said. "They have the distribution networks down pat."
Although the founder of the Gulf Cartel, Osiel Cardenas, has been behind bars in Mexico since 2003 — and a $5 million reward is offered for the capture of his deputy, Jorge Costilla-Sanchez, investigators said the Gulf Cartel's clout has continued to mount.
Ray D'Alessio, a DEA spokesman, said much of the illicit trade is hidden in secret caches or stored among legitimate items, such as produce.
"A good portion of it is intercepted, but unfortunately quite a good portion of it gets across," D'Alessio said.
Branching out
The Mexican gangs have increasingly moved into other varieties of narcotics, including producing methamphetamine that eventually finds its way to Houston and other cities.
"If meth could supplant cocaine, it would be better (for the Mexican gangs) because they wouldn't have to pay the Colombians anything," Furce said. "They would have complete control over their destiny."
Investigators say smugglers have shown ingenuity as they shuttle the drugs from the point of origin to the buyers — including digging tunnels across the border into the United States.
"The traffickers operated with unlimited resources, by land and by sea," said Phil Jordan, a former director of EPIC, the El Paso Intelligence Center, which monitors narcotics operations along the US-Mexico border.
"The limited responses that we have against the cartels can, at best, be described as a holding action," Jordan said.
Because most drug traffickers use cheap and disposable cell phones to conduct their business, it is becoming increasingly difficult to monitor their conversations and trace their calls, authorities said.
"When the deal is over, the deal is over and the phone goes with it," Smith said.
NAFTA's effects
The North American Free Trade Agreement, known as NAFTA, promised open trade and faster modes of travel for Canada, the United States and Mexico — the three nations that signed the accord in 1992.
However, narcotics investigators said NAFTA also has played a major part in the increasing levels of violence along the border and an upsurge in the drug trade.
"I call it the 'North American Free Trafficking Agreement,'" Jordan said.
Many law enforcement agencies that fight the drug trade weren't particularly surprised that their battles became more intense following the adoption of NAFTA, Furce said.
Police said much of the gang violence that erupts in Houston can be directly linked to the drug trade — often a fight about turf or a robbery of a rival trafficker.
"When it's all said and done, it's two drug dealers ripping (each other) off," Smith said.
Tip from rival gang?
The anonymous tip that led to the arrest of Mendez might have come from a rival drug gang, Bagley said.
They often make the calls to disrupt the efforts of competitors.
"If they don't kill each other, they rat each other out," he said.
Mendez was taken into custody and charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver, authorities said.
He remains at the Harris County Jail on bail set at more than $1 million for both counts.
mike.glenn@chron.com - anita.hassan@chron.com |
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