[scottwww]

Or at least there should be less cocaine and meth amphetamine making it to the streets.

U.S. hits Mexican drug cartel with big raid

Wed Sep 17, 2008 2:19pm EDT

By Matthew Bigg
ATLANTA (Reuters) - U.S. officials arrested 175 people and seized tens of millions of dollars in cash and drugs during a raid of the U.S. network of a top Mexican cartel, the Drug Enforcement Administration said on Wednesday.

The arrests came over two days in an operation code-named Project Reckoning that confiscated more than 35,000 pounds (16,000 kg) of cocaine, more than 1,000 pounds (450 kg) of methamphetamine and $60 million in cash, the agency said.

The street value of the cocaine could be some $320 million, according to prices cited by DEA agents in news reports.

The 15-month operation targeted the Gulf cartel, which is based in northeastern Mexico and is one of the two main Mexican organizations shipping cocaine to the United States on behalf of Colombian drug lords.
"It will make a huge dent in the overall drug flow in that it will take out the middle level and we hope the upper level of one of the substantial cartels that are operating in Mexico," said U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
"There are other cartels that are operating as well but this is one of the major ones and one of the most violent ones," he told a news conference in Atlanta during which guns and packets of seized money were put on display.

Project Reckoning targeted several parts of the Gulf cartel's operations including transportation and cocaine flows into Atlanta, Dallas and Houston.

Authorities also focused on drug trafficking from Mexico through the United States and then to Europe via Rome. Europe has become a growth market for cocaine trafficking because of the dollar's decline against the Euro, officials said.

The DEA also unveiled an indictment against Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano and two other Gulf cartel chiefs believed to be living in Mexico for conspiracy to import drugs into the United States.

The cartel, whose original members deserted from the Mexican army, rose to power by acting as a middleman for Colombian cartels seeking to export drugs into the vast U.S. market.

The raid was the latest episode in the decades-old U.S. "war
on drugs" that attempts to stem the flow of a multibillion-dollar global trade.

The fight is a major component of U.S. policy toward Latin America, but critics argue Washington should be putting more resources into cutting consumption by treating addicts at home.

(Editing by Michael Christie and Xavier Briand)

[Brunotheboxer]

Originally Posted by scottwww

Or at least there should be less cocaine and meth amphetamine making it to the streets.

No more Drugs? Yeah like this is going to be the end of drugs. Bottom line is people want drugs so they will do drugs.

[gonzo]

I would like to see them stop the flow of cocaine and weed in Texas.....pshhhh. The stuff falls out of the trees here.

[scottwww]

Here are a few pictures from the Reuters story.

[scottwww]

Wow. Apparently Project Reckoning resulted in 507 arrests from the Gulf cartel over the last 15 months.

Here is another bust that just happened:

2008-09-17 16:56
200 held in Italy- US narco bust
Calabrian Mafia used Mexican gangs

(ANSA) - Rome, September 17 - More than 200 people were arrested on both sides of the Atlantic Wednesday in a huge drug bust that confirmed the dominance of the Calabrian Mafia, or 'Ndrangheta, in supplying Colombian cocaine to Europe through Mexico.



Italian drug police working with the FBI and the United States Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) rounded up scores of traffickers in Italy and the US including 16 members of a top 'Ndrangheta clan.

The operation, which began in March, found that narco-traffickers had shifted many of their operations to Mexico where the so-called Gulf Cartel employed a paramilitary group called the Zetas to kill hundreds of witnesses, informants, magistrates and police.

Investigators also found that the 'Ndrangheta had put down ''solid roots'' in the US and Canada.

Operating out of their headquarters in the New York borough of Queens, the clan involved in the cocaine trade turned to New York associates of the Gulf Cartel after an Ecuadorian connection was smashed.

The New York associates were named as Christopher Anthony Castellano and Ignacio Alberto Diaz. One of Italy's 30 most wanted criminals, 'Ndrangheta boss Giuseppe Coluccio, was arrested in Toronto last month and has been brought back to Italy.

The Calabrian prosecutor leading the investigation, Nicola Gratteri, is in the US with other Italian drug officials to coordinate the operation there, while a US magistrate and members of the DEA and FBI have come to Italy to help Carabinieri.

As well as cocaine, the cartel dealt in marijuana and metamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth, police said.

The drugs came in by month via couriers or by post and was paid for on Western Union or through a money transfer business operated by Coluccio's brother.

The 'Ndrangheta has taken a stranglehold on cocaine trafficking in recent years, giving it the guns and money that have led Italian authorities to brand it more dangerous than Sicily's Cosa Nostra.

It exerts criminal control over swathes of Calabria and killed a prominent local politician two years ago.

[scottwww]

Here is a more detailed account of the bust in Italy.

200 arrested in anti-drug bust in Italy, US, Latin America: police
1 hour ago

ROME (AFP) — Italian police said Wednesday more than 200 suspected cocaine traffickers had been arrested in Italy, the United States and Latin America in a joint operation with US authorities.

More than 16 tonnes of cocaine and about 57 million dollars (40 million euros) were seized in Latin America during a six-month investigation which led to the arrests, police said in a statement.

Among those detained in the United States and Italy's southern Calabria region were 16 suspected members of Italy's Ndrangheta mafia.

"More than 200 people were arrested early Wednesday, mainly in Mexico and Guatemala, but also in New York and Calabria," an Italian police investigator told AFP.

Fourteen of those held -- eight in Italy and six in New York -- are suspected of being the masterminds of the trafficking ring which operated between Latin America, the United States and Italy, as well as other European countries.

The other suspects, believed by investigators to be part of a Mexican cartel, were arrested in Mexico and Guatemala, the investigator told AFP without elaborating.

"This operation led to the break-up of major parts of one of the most active cartels in cocaine trafficking in Latin America," he added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The police statement said the cartel used an international distribution ring of some 1,400 people worldwide.

During the investigation officers uncovered the responsibilities of the cartel in the trafficking of dozens of tonnes of cocaine, methamphetamine and cannabis.

Giuseppe Coluccio, 41, a suspected Ndrangheta clan chief, who was on a list of the 30 most wanted people in Italy, was arrested in Canada in August as part of the investigation.

Italy's Eurispes institute for political, economic and social studies has estimated the Ndrangheta's turnover at 44 billion euros in 2007, or 2.9 percent of Italy's gross domestic product.

The organised crime group is mainly active in drug and arms trafficking, prostitution and extortion.

In February, a major anti-mafia crackdown in the United States and Italy had led to the arrest of 74 people.

----
\/ \/ \/ \/ Bales of cocaine in one of the compartments of a vessel interdicted at sea by the USS McInerney

[solefald]

if you really think this will stop the drug flow into US, you are in for a surprise, scotty

175 people arrested is nothing to a drug cartel and all those confiscated drugs are nothing more than a cost of operating a business.... think of it as their taxes

[ArmyBimmerDude]

Not that it all comes from Mexico, but as long as our borders are a joke, this will never end.

[Year's_End]

Originally Posted by ArmyBimmerDude

Not that it all comes from Mexico, but as long as our borders are a joke, this will never end.

Weak borders ftl.

[monsta]

i wonder how much $ and drugs were "lost"

[aut0sh0cker]

Originally Posted by Bimmer Loyalist

Weak borders ftl.

AMEN! who needs the army? give me a M16 and a hummer and I will guard the border for free!

[Neurorad]

Each of those is probably a weekly delivery.

Just think of all the money in lost revenues; politicians are itching to legalize drugs.