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migrants and the drug seizures # in the area between McAllen and Rio Grande City,” Diaz said.Border Patrol officialsbelieve the drug trafficking is being controlled by the Gulf Cartel, which was once headed by (MU Cardenas, who was arrested last March during a shootout in Matamorosbetween cartel members and Mexican soldiers Cardenas was charged in a Mexican federal court on smuggling and drug trafficking and could remain in federal prison for up to 50 years.Despite his absence, the cartel has maintained distribution routes in the Valley, which Mexican and U.S. Border Patrol officials say has become one of the main entry points of illegal narcotics into the United States.“They have a lot of cells (used to cross) illegal immigrants but they also ... cross tons of illegal drugs from Mexico to the United States,” said Ruben Dario, spokesman at Tamaulipas state attorney general’s office.U.S. authorities say progress ls being made to combat these operations.Since Operation Rio Grande began in August 1997, the Border Patrol claims drug seizures have quadrupled. The operation called for more agents and security measures along the border to decrease illegal human and drug smugglingCartels are continuing to push narcotics across the border, but Border Patrol agents are confident that Washington has given them adequate tools — hundreds of officers, vehicles and an array of high-tech equipment — to begin controlling a notoriously porous stretch of the Texas-Mexico border.We have concentrated our efforts along the river ... so it lias made it harder to smuggle drugs from Mexico to this side, Diaz said.‘They are trying to cross their narcotics into lots of different areas to make sure that at least a portion makes it successfully to this side of the border.”last year Mexican authorities conducted a crackdown against the Gulf Cartel that led to the arrest of several of its key members, including Cardenas.The campaign was deemed a success by Mexican officials, but Dario theorizes that Cardenas is still controlling drug trafficking from his cell in Mexico.He also said the drug operations going through the upper Valley could be headed by members of extinct cartels who have “allied their powers with other criminal groups to unify their territories, stabilize prices and strengthen business relations.”anegretelt;(*ltnk.freedom. com
Newspaper Details
Brownsville Herald
Brownsville, Texas, US
Thu, Mar 18, 2004
Page 12
Full Page
Clipped by
Benjamin S.
USA 06 Jan 2024
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