U.S.-Mexico Operation Results in Arrest of Mexican Drug Lord
06 February 2006
Oscar Arturo Arriola-Marquez headed cocaine, marijuana cartel, agency says
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- A joint U.S.-Mexico operation has resulted in the arrest of a major Mexican drug kingpin who headed a violent criminal cartel responsible for trafficking thousands of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana into the United States.
In a February 3 statement, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said Oscar Arturo Arriola-Marquez was arrested that day in Torreon Coahuila, Mexico, as a result of a joint operation between the DEA and the Mexican Federal Agency of Investigations.
The DEA alleged the Mexican cartel laundered the illegal proceeds earned from the drug trafficking. The cartel's operations extended from Mexico to across the southwest region of the United States.
As part of the investigation in the case, Mexican government officials seized about $32 million in assets from the Arriola-Marquez cartel. The Bush administration identified Arriola-Marquez in June 2005 as a foreign narcotics kingpin under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.
According to a White House fact sheet, the Kingpin Act aims 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.
DEA has been investigating the Arriola-Marquez organization for its role in the money laundering of drug proceeds under DEA's Money Trail Initiative. That initiative is a financial crime strategy that attacks the financing of illegal drug trade and dismantles major drug trafficking organizations.
DEA Deputy Administrator Michele Leonhart said Arriola-Marquez is a man "complicit in the ruined lives of countless Americans. His arrest is a meaningful victory in this nation's s battle against drugs. He was responsible for cocaine in American neighborhoods from Colorado to North Carolina, and his money laundering operation was one of the largest in the world."
If convicted of the charges against him, Arriola-Marquez faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison, the DEA said.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that the United States and Mexico are both "absolutely committed" to combating the illicit narcotics trade.
During her trip to Mexico in March 2005, Rice said that within the "context of Mexico's own laws," that country has been a "very good partner" on counternarcotics issues. (See related article.)
The U.S. State Department’s International Narcotics Control Strategy Report -- 2005, said that as a result of the serious threat that drug trafficking poses to its national security and public safety, the Mexican Government sustained an intensive counternarcotics and law enforcement effort throughout 2004.
Mexico’s government, led by President Vicente Fox, continued its “unprecedented cooperation with the United States in fighting drug trafficking and other serious trans-border crimes menacing the citizens of both countries,” the report said. The section of the report pertaining to Mexico is available on the State Department Web site.
Additional information on the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act is available on the White House Web site. Information on the Money Trail Initiative is available on the DEA Web site.
For more on U.S. policy, see Mexico.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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