03 December 2003
U.S. on the Lookout for Powerful Mexican Drug Lord
DEA to offer reward for information about drug trafficker
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) plans to offer a reward to anyone who has information that leads to the capture and arrest of a Mexican drug trafficker, who has been plying his illegal trade for more than three decades.
The DEA said in a statement that Ismael Zambada-Garcia has been operating one of the "largest and most powerful" drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, smuggling wholesale quantities of cocaine and marijuana into the U.S. state of Arizona and other areas along the U.S.-Mexican southwest border.
Zambada-Garcia, also known as "El Mayo," has been indicted by the United States for his drug trafficking activities, and recently emerged as one of the top drug dealers in Mexico after a bloody battle with the Arellano-Felix drug trafficking organization, based in Tijuana. Zambada-Garcia is said to have consolidated his control over drug smuggling routes from the Mexican state of Sonora into Arizona.
DEA spokesperson Ramona Sanchez said that while there is no hard evidence that Zambada-Garcia has crossed the border into the United States, the DEA is not ruling out his presence in Arizona since he is known to have family in that state.
Sanchez said the size of the DEA reward for the capture of Zambada-Garcia will depend on such factors as the quantity and value of the information provided to her agency. Meanwhile, the DEA plans an aggressive media campaign about Zambada-Garcia, with "wanted" posters and flyers of the drug lord to be posted at ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. Two billboards are being posted along Interstate 10 in southern Arizona for information leading to Zambada-Garcia's capture.
U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Zambada-Garcia's indictment July 31, along with the arrests of more 240 individuals, as part of a 19-month-long operation called Operation Trifecta. The indictment charged Zambada-Garcia, and two of his top lieutenants, with conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, that was produced in Colombia, to markets in New York/New Jersey, California, and to Chicago, Illinois.
Ashcroft said the indictment of Zambada-Garcia and the arrests in Operation Trifecta resulted from U.S. coordination with law enforcement authorities in Mexico and Colombia.
The attorney general said the law enforcement agencies, by working together, have achieved a "significant victory against the purveyors of illegal drugs, death, and violence." Ashcroft added that the "activities of drug cartels such as Zambada-Garcia weaken our citizens and communities ... threaten the rule of law and insidiously endanger our way of life."
As a statement to the danger that Zambada-Garcia presents, the Bush administration designated the Mexican drug trafficker as subject to its Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act. The Kingpin Act is designed to deny significant foreign narcotics traffickers, their related businesses, and their operatives access to the U.S. financial system and all trade and transactions involving U.S. companies and individuals.
The Kingpin Act authorizes the President to take these actions when he determines that a foreign narcotics trafficker presents a threat to the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.
The DEA has set up a confidential bilingual toll-free line for information about Zambada-Garcia's whereabouts at 1-866-332-7469.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
This page printed from: http://usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2003&m=December&x=20031203141751neerGE0.8329737&t=usinfo/wf-latest.html
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