Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Copyright: 2012 The Dallas Morning News, Inc. Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/cgi-bin/lettertoed.cgi Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117 Author: Alfredo Corchado CARTEL'S RACING CONNECTION Feds' Sweep Includes N.M. Track, Balch Springs Property Federal agents raided a property in Balch Springs on Tuesday as part of a multistate investigation into money laundering operations carried out by Mexico's notorious Zeta drug cartel, including funneling millions of dollars into breeding and racing horses, according to a U.S. law enforcement official and a federal indictment unsealed in Austin. The investigation underscores the reach of the Zetas in North Texas, including some connections previously reported in The Dallas Morning News. The Zeta gang, once the paramilitary wing of the Gulf cartel, is now among one of the most violent groups in Mexico, with a growing presence in Central America and several U.S. communities, particularly in Texas. The Zetas have been implicated in some of the most brutal massacres in Mexico, including the death and dismemberment of 49 people found in May in the northern state of Nuevo Leon, and the killing of 72 immigrants, mostly from Central America, in August 2010 in northern Tamaulipas state. Agents on Tuesday searched the North Texas property allegedly belonging to Jose Trevino Morales, brother of the Zetas' No. 2 leader, Miguel Trevino Morales, the U.S. official said. Raids were also carried out at a racetrack in New Mexico and a ranch in Oklahoma, as well as properties in Texas' Rio Grande Valley and in California, according to the indictment, which charges Miguel Trevino Morales, known as "40," and other cartel members with money laundering in connection to drug trafficking. According to prosecutors, seven of the 14 people indicted have been arrested, including Jose Trevino Morales, an older brother of Miguel Trevino Morales. Another Trevino brother, Omar, was also charged. Jose Trevino Morales, 45, established Tremor Enterprises in Balch Springs in December 2009 and used the operation as a front to launder cartel money, according to the affidavit and indictment. The FBI contends that Jose Trevino ran the horse empire from Balch Springs and later from Oklahoma, where he was arrested Tuesday morning. According to a report on the investigation that appeared in The New York Times, Jose became a major force in the quarter horse business through the breeding operation. The affidavit said the operation spent $1 million a month on quarter horses in the U.S. "Based on the evidence presented in this affidavit, there is probable cause to believe that Los Zetas drug cartel provided money generated from specified unlawful activities to include cocaine trafficking, extortion and bribery to obtain quarter horses in the United States," the affidavit says. "Once the horses were purchased, Los Zetas drug cartel continued to supply money generated from the specified unlawful activity to continue the ongoing illegal money laundering activities by paying for boarding, medical and racing expenses," the affidavit says. "The ultimate goal of this money laundering operation was to provide Jose Trevino with apparent legitimate assets purchased and maintained by illegally obtained money." One horse, Tempting Dash, was later nicknamed "40" in honor of Miguel Trevino Morales and went on to win the Dash for Cash at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie in October 2009, according to the affidavit and indictment. Another horse, Mr. Piloto, won a million-dollar prize in September 2010 at the All American Futurity in Ruidoso, N.M. Another of Tremor's horses was named Number One Cartel, according to The Times report. Between September 2010 and March 2011, a confidential informant sent money to his contact in Grand Prairie four times for a total of $250,000, according to the affidavit. "Miguel Trevino bragged in front of [an informant] that the horse business was an easy way to launder money," the affidavit stated. "On one occasion, '40' talked about how they changed the names of the horse owners on documents to disguise ownership and alter the documents to make the horses seem cheaper." The Trevino Morales family has had a presence in North Texas, including Mesquite, that spans nearly two decades, the U.S. investigator said. Members of the the family worked in the Dallas area for several years as bricklayers and gardeners, although their knowledge of smuggling from their days in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, bordering Texas, proved to be more profitable, according to the investigator. One brother, Omar, is known as "42," and has been described as the third-mostpowerful member of the Zetas, after his brother Miguel and leader Heriberto Lazcano, known as "El Lazca." Another brother, Francisco, is in prison in West Texas, sentenced in 1995 for conspiring to smuggle hundreds of pounds of marijuana into the U.S. North Texas is also home to the Zetas' biggest cocaine distribution operation, referred to in the affidavit as "the client," according to the document. According to the affidavit, "the client regularly sent bulk cash" to an informant, who would take it from Dallas to "persons in the United States" who were paying debts for horses for "40." "On one occasion, [an informant] had the client's workers meet the brother of '40,' Jose Trevino, at a WalMart at Buckner Road and Interstate 30 outside of Dallas with $100,000 to $150,000," the affidavit says. "Jose Trevino waited in a white Suburban with his lights on in the parking lot. This transaction took place in June or July of 2010." Also arrested Tuesday were Jose Trevino's wife, Zulema Trevino, 38, in Lexington, Okla.; Fernando Solis Garcia, 29, in Ruidoso, N.M.; Carlos Miguel Nayen Borbolla, 26, Adan Farias, 32, and Felipe Alejandro Quintero, 28, in Los Angeles; and, Eusevio Maldonado Huitron, 48, in Austin. All seven were in federal custody. Two of the Trevino brothers, Miguel, 38, and Omar, 36, are believed to be in Mexico. Other individuals indicted but not yet arrested are Raul Ramirez, 20, of El Paso; Francisco Antonio Colorado Cessa, 51, of Veracruz, Mexico; Victor Manuel Lopez, 31, of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; Sergio Rogelio Guerrero Rincon, 40, of Mexico; and, Luis Gerardo Aguirre, 35, of Mexico. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom