HOUSTON -- The drug cartels that have brought fear and crime to the U.S.-Mexico border are bringing violence to this city that has long been a major staging ground for illegal drug imports, authorities say.
"It is here and it has been here, but people don't want to listen," said Rick Moreno, a Houston police homicide investigator working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI. "It is so far-reaching."
In December, authorities began making arrests in the 2006 shooting death of Jose Perez, a 27-year-old man who was mistaken for the head of a Mexican drug cartel while in a restaurant parking lot. The suspected drug boss was sitting at another table and walked away unscathed, authorities say. A few months later, he was dead, too -- gunned down two miles from the restaurant.
"I just remember that guy coming up to us, and he started shooting and shooting and shooting and never stopped," Perez's widow, Norma Gonzalez, told the Houston Chronicle for a story published Sunday. "I know they will pay for what they have done, maybe in the next life."
Arrests in the case came as investigators were able to chart the relationships and rivalries between at least five cartel cells operating in Houston by using a group of about 100 names, mug shots and morgue photos.
The Department of Justice recently named 230 cities, including Houston, where cartels maintain distribution networks and supply lines.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said international drug trafficking poses a serious threat to community safety.
"We can provide our communities the safety and the security that they deserve only by confronting these dangerous cartels head-on without reservation," he said.
In Houston, investigators quietly began an operation three years ago to take apart cartel operations when an undercover DEA agent listened as a drug trafficker used a two-way radio to set up delivery of $750,000 as he stood in line at McDonald's and ordered Happy Meals for his kids.
Since then, more than 70 people in Houston have been prosecuted and more than $5 million has been seized, along with about 3,000 pounds of cocaine, according to court records and law enforcement officers.
Federal agents concede the numbers represent just a fraction of the cash and drugs pumped through the city, but contend the law enforcement action still prevents countless crimes.
"The public never gets the full picture, they don't understand these murders, these kidnappings, these violent crimes are directly tied to these organizations," said Violet Szeleczky, spokeswoman for the DEA regional office in Houston. "A lot of these guys are just real dirtbags."
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
Twitter
Facebook
