Pubdate: Thu, 14 Dec 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2000 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  Viewpoints Editor, P.O. Box 4260 Houston, Texas 77210-4260
Fax: (713) 220-3575
Website: http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: James Pinkerton

DRUG TRAFFICKERS NABBED, REWARD POSTED FOR LEADER

HARLINGEN - Federal agents Thursday began arresting suspected members
of a drug-trafficking gang and offered a $2 million reward for the
ringleader, a notorious Matamoros drug lord who threatened to kill two
federal agents during an armed standoff last year.

Prosecutors at the U.S. District Court in Brownsville unsealed a
federal indictment Thursday charging Matamoros drug kingpin Oziel
Cardenas-Guillen with two counts of drug trafficking and three counts
of assault on a federal officer.

At the same time, FBI, U.S. Customs and Drug Enforcement
Administration agents were out arresting 57 of 100 suspects linked to
Cardenas' trafficking cartel. The arrests included six Houston
residents, a U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman said.

Arrest warrants were issued for people from northern Mexico; the
Dominican Republic; Brownsville; McAllen; Chicago; Columbus, Ohio;
Memphis, Tenn.; Louisville, Miss.; and New York, authorities said.

"They're running," Assistant U.S. Attorney Jesse Rodriguez said of the
remaining members of the Matamoros-based trafficking organization
known as the Gulf Cartel.

The cartel has smuggled a lot of marijuana and cocaine into the United
States, authorities said. The drugs are smuggled across the
U.S.-Mexican border on rafts or in cars or cargo trucks and the turned
over to others for distribution.

"They are major players in the Matamoros and Reynosa area. They're
responsible for transporting marijuana and cocaine from the Rio Grande
Valley to various points in the United States," said Jody Young, a
federal prosecutor assigned to the investigation in
Brownsville.

Federal authorities have long believed Cardenas assumed control of the
cartel when its former leader Juan Garcia Abrego was brought to
Houston and prosecuted in federal court for drug crimes. Cardenas also
recruited remaining gang members of a now defunct drug cartel from
Juarez, Mexico, authorities believe.

"Through the indictment and $2 million reward announced today, we are
turning the tables on a predator who has terrorized the public and
targeted the police," U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Raymond Kelly
said.

The indictment charges that Cardenas and seven members of his gang
surrounded two U.S. federal agents and a drug informant as they sat in
a car on a Matamoros street. During the tense Nov. 9, 1999, standoff,
Cardenas and his pistoleros pointed gold-plated guns and an assault
rifle at the car and threatened to kill the agents, according to the
indictment.

The standoff ended when the FBI and DEA agents showed their
credentials and warned the gang of the consequences of their actions.

The indictment against Cardenas, returned in March, was kept secret to
give Mexican authorities an opportunity to arrest the drug lord in
Matamoros, prosecutors said.

"We were assisting the Mexican authorities in their efforts to try and
locate and arrest him there in Mexico. They were not successful," said
Rodriguez.

So the indictment was made public Thursday.

"The $2 million (reward) was put up by the U.S. State Department and
we hope to be able to apprehend him," said Young.

Since the investigation of Cardenas' organization began, 34 members of
the gang have been indicted and agents have seized 8 tons of marijuana
and 600 pounds of cocaine, authorities said.

Authorities believe the investigation is hurting the
cartel.

"Certainly the number of arrests and the number of seizures of drugs
and currency will disrupt and slow down the organization," Young said.

The arrests Thursday were part of a trafficking investigation that
began in 1996 and targeted drug routes operated by the Juarez cartel.
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