16 February 2005
Guatemalan-Colombian Heroin/Cocaine Cartel Dismantled
Two-year probe results in 100 arrests, seizures of drugs and cash
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A large-scale heroin and cocaine trafficking ring that typically shipped multikilogram amounts of Colombian heroin hidden in car batteries from Guatemala to Mexico and the United States is out of business, says the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
In a February 15 statement, the DEA said the dismantling of the drug cartel was a product of the agency's "Operation Jump Start," a two-year investigation that has resulted thus far in 100 arrests and the seizure of more than 22 kilograms of heroin, 80 kilograms of cocaine, and over $1 million in currency.
Among those arrested in the operation was Colombian national Humberto Palaez Escobar, a key player in the organization's leadership. The operation also had previously netted Carlos Enrique Gonzalez-Hoyos, who was indicted by the U.S. Attorney's Office in New York in November 2004. Hoyos was responsible for sending monthly multikilogram shipments of heroin into the United States from Guatemala. Hoyos is currently serving a prison sentence for a narcotics violation in Guatemala, but had continued to orchestrate large shipments of heroin and cocaine to the United States, said the DEA.
The operation included the arrests in Guatemala of nine "senior directors" of the drug organization. Those arrests mean the drug cartel has been effectively dismantled, according to the DEA.
DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said Operation Jump Start has "drug traffickers on the run, forcing them to find new routes and smuggling methods." Tandy said the operation has brought "to a dead end" a drug ring that was using a new trafficking route to smuggle heroin from Colombia through Guatemala into the United States, and has thereby "closed another avenue to traffickers hoping to peddle this potent and addictive poison in America."
The success of its operation, said the DEA, was a result of the collective law enforcement efforts of U.S. officials and the governments of Guatemala and Colombia.
In a separate development, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Newark, New Jersey, arrested on February 14 three baggage handlers of Continental Airlines and a former private security guard because of their involvement in a narcotics smuggling operation that originated in the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Mexico. Narcotics were loaded in those countries onto commercial aircraft destined for the United States.
In a February 15 statement, ICE said those arrested the previous day have been charged with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the United States through Newark's international airport.
ICE said the defendants are accused of using their positions at secure areas of the airport to act as "lookouts" while others diverted cocaine-laden luggage from international to domestic baggage carousels. Through these means and by retagging suitcases containing cocaine, the conspirators sought to ensure that law enforcement personnel did not inspect the luggage, said ICE, which is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The conspirators were able to divert luggage containing as much as 37 pounds of cocaine at a time, said the DEA. Once the luggage was delivered to the domestic carousel, it was picked up and delivered to various locations in the New York/New Jersey area.
Those arrested face a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the charges against them. Additional arrests in the case are expected, said ICE.
(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=2005&m=February&x=20050216145349AEneerG0.9271967&t=livefeeds/wf-latest.html
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