Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jun 2013
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2013 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Les Zaitz
Series: Under the curse of cartels - An Oregonian Special Report

Northwest Traffickers

HOW THEY OPERATE

Shipments: Big operators buy directly from cartels, others through 
wholesalers in border states such as Arizona and California. Drugs 
are smuggled into the U.S. in cars, trucks, planes and on 
individuals. Drugs are then taken to "stash houses" and divided into 
smaller loads. Sophisticated traffickers rarely keep drugs in their 
homes. Instead, they distribute from other houses and businesses to 
insulate themselves from prosecution. Drugs are driven north hidden 
in cars, freight trucks and in luggage on Mexican bus lines. Mexicans 
in the country illegally and desperate for cash often work as drivers.

Avoiding detection: Traffickers hide drugs in custom-made 
compartments in vehicles, such as inside bumpers or airbag cavities. 
They try to foil drug-sniffing dogs by wrapping drugs in layers of 
plastic interspersed with diesel or other smelly compounds. They also 
try to overpower the distinctive smell with air fresheners or by 
stuffing vents with scented dryer sheets.

Paying cartels: Cash is sent back to Mexico using the same 
compartments and routes as for drugs. Traffickers also use wire 
transfers, bank accounts and gift cards to move money. No one can 
estimate how much, but Oregon law enforcement officials reported 
seizing $4million from drug traffickers in 2011.

Making deals: Traffickers orchestrate orders and deliveries with 
cellphones they frequently replace. They use crude code words such as 
"windows" for methamphetamine, "two girls" for 2ounces, "the girl 
with green eyes" for marijuana and "cows with horns" for patrol cars.

Cash and credit: In a practice known as "fronting," a dealer can get 
drugs to sell, then pay a week or two later. Those who fail to pay 
face harsh retribution. Police suspect unpaid drug debts are behind 
unsolved homicides across Oregon. Those who skip out on a debt can 
put families back in Mexico in mortal danger.

Gun running: Traffickers smuggle guns to Mexico for the cartels. In 
the past seven years, Mexican authorities have seized 800 guns traced 
back to Oregon.

WHO THEY ARE

Law enforcement officials are aware of 69 drug trafficking 
organizations, or DTOs, operating in Oregon. Here's a look at some 
previous operations they've taken down.

Salem: Elias Espinoza Lopez flooded Oregon and Washington with cartel 
cocaine -- 200 kilos a month -- for nearly a decade before he was 
caught in 2003 and sent to prison for more than 12 years.

Portland: Before her arrest and conviction in 2009 for selling 
cocaine and heroin, Mariana Franco-Maldonado wired $2,000 a week in 
2008 to cover construction of what her mother called the "big, 
beautiful house" for extended family in Mexico, according to a 
federal prosecutor's sentencing memo.

Beaverton: Isidro Garcia Juarez, known on the streets as Chilo, sold 
cocaine ordered from the Sinaloa cartel through La Pinata grocery in 
Beaverton. He was arrested in 2009 and later convicted. For a cut of 
the proceeds, he let others conduct deals at the store. Groceries 
became dusty as the store sold little food, instead becoming one of 
the most active drug marketplaces in Washington County, according to 
investigators.

Gresham: Maria Delrosario Guzman took phone orders at her apartment 
and made deliveries in parking lots as undercover police watched in 
2010. She was sentenced in 2011 to 7 1/2 years in prison. One of her 
customers, Victor Manuel Castillo, told in a recent prison interview 
how he started selling to friends and their acquaintances to support 
his own habit. He kept selling to one man even as it dawned on him 
that the man was an undercover cop. "I knew, I just knew, but the 
money was so good," Castillo said.

Bend: Antonio Rico-Sanchez ran a meth ring out of Rico's Groceries, 
directing midlevel distributors to leave money in a food cooler at 
the back of the store. They would return later in the day to find the 
money replaced with their drug supply. Police took down the operation 
in 2011. Rico-Sanchez was sent to prison for 13 months.

Eugene: Jorge Orozco, working with traffickers in California, 
operated a meth network with dealers in Bend, Madras, Redmond and 
Warm Springs. Police dismantled the operation and arrested him in 
December 2011. He pleaded guilty in April 2010 and awaits sentencing.

Klamath County: Forty-seven people were indicted last month after 300 
officers from local, state and federal agencies swept through homes 
and businesses to dismantle a drug and gun trafficking operation. The 
investigation began with the discovery of two suspected drug dealers 
found shot to death and buried outside tiny Bonanza.

Portland: Three associates of the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's biggest, 
face sentencing in Portland after police busted their cocaine 
smuggling operation.

HOW THEY AVOID POLICE

Jamie Osegera-Gonzalez lived in Beaverton and sold meth and heroin 
supplied by the Los Zetas cartel, according to a federal affidavit. 
He returned to Mexico in 2010 as authorities closed in, and remains a 
fugitive wanted on federal charges. Back in 2007, he tried to recruit 
a Portland man -- an FBI informant -- and shared the tactics he 
developed after "many encounters with local law enforcement both in 
the United States and Mexico," according to the affidavit.

* Deal only with those of Mexican descent. "Families in Mexico can be 
used as leverage to ensure payment or prevent customers from working 
as informants," Osegera-Gonzalez said, according to the affidavit.

* Conduct deals after 5 p.m. and on weekends, when fewer police are on duty.

* Use evasive driving -- abrupt U-turns, driving down dead-end 
streets, stopping in the middle of the road.

* Loop through the neighborhood before going home to look for 
anything out of place.

* Don't put your cellphone in your name, and change phones frequently.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom