Pubdate: Fri, 10 Apr 1998 Source: Expressnews.com Titel: 1/2 tons of cocaine hauled in by DEA Contact: http://www.expressnews.com Author: Dane Schiller, Express-News Border Bureau 1 1/2 TONS OF COCAINE HAULED IN BY DEA Agent posing as trucker hired to move illicit cargo LAREDO -- Federal drug agents were busy Friday tracing which international drug cartel unknowingly hired an undercover agent to sneak 1 1/2 tons of cocaine from Pharr to Houston. The cache, valued at about $14 million, was wrapped in plastic bundles and stashed in a tractor-trailer rig full of pineapples. "It's the biggest seizure in at least 10 years" for the Drug Enforcement Administration in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Barry Abbott, head of the DEA field office in McAllen, said by phone. The next step is finding out which of Mexico and South America's beseiged drug cartels was responsible for getting the load to the Valley, Abbott said Friday. "I don't have a clue. We'd like to know," he said. "In theory, we'd like to trace it back to the lab in Colombia." Among the clues were letters "M" and "N" marked on the bundles, Abbott said. The load is considered to be worth $14 million in the wholesale market among major dealers in the drug world, but could be worth 10 times as much by the time it's sold on street corners, according to authorities. Agents seized the load late Wednesday night shortly after a DEA agent, posing as a rogue truck driver, picked up the pineapple-covered load from a group of alleged Rio Grande Valley smugglers, Abbott said. Instead of heading to Houston, the agent drove the rig to a fenced U.S. Customs Service compound where the trailer was searched and bundles were found among the pineapples, Abbott said. Two Pharr brothers, Jacobo Mendoza, 49, and Benjamin Mendoza, 44, were brought before U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos in McAllen Thursday where they were ordered held on charges of conspiracy and possession of the cocaine. The seizure comes as Mexican drug cartels battle for control of turf left by Amado Carrillo Fuentes, who died in July of complications during plastic surgery to hide his identity. Fuentes, who was based in Ciudad Ju·rez, across the Rio Grande from El Paso, was known as the Lord of the Skies for his use of large aircraft to smuggle cocaine. Meanwhile, Judy Turner, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Customs Service regional headquarters in Houston, said authorities believe they have figured out who is the new boss of the Texas-Mexico drug underworld, but they're still struggling for confirmation. "Right now, our best intelligence indicates there's a major power struggle to fill the Amado Carrillo Fuentes void, and we believe we know who the front-runner is," she said. She would not elaborate. Friday, April 10, 1998