Authorities say only minor incidents from opening Mardi Gras weekend
February 22, 2017OUR VIEW: Carnival madness
February 22, 2017
More than 44 pounds of cocaine was seized in Terrebonne Parish recently as a component of an investigation into shipments of drugs related to Mexico’s Gulf Cartel, an infamous organization whose exploits date back to shipments of alcohol during the Prohibition era.
An investigation begun last year continues. Shipments, authorities said, were destined for distribution throughout southeast Louisiana.
Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said the cocaine was coming from Mexico and then through south Texas. The seizures included packages of cocaine hidden in a shipment of garden mulch on an 18-wheeler. Another 18-wheeler was also seized, along with a pickup.
“We weren’t their first stop, I can assure you,” Larpenter said, indicating that greater quantities of cocaine or other drugs may have well been distributed at other places along the route. “They didn’t come for just one little stop here, we were probably their last stop.”
One of the big trucks was taken at the parking lot at Walmart on Martin Luther King Boulevard.
Administration, Customs/Border Patrol, and Homeland Security Investigations.
“The final destination definitely was southeast Louisiana,” said Maj. Terry Daigre, commander of Larpenter’s Narcotics Division. “It was going to be offloaded right here.”
The Terrebonne Narcotics Task Force conducted the operation, with assistance from the Louisiana State Police and the sheriff’s offices of Jefferson and St. Charles parishes.
Larpenter said agents recovered over 20 kilgrams between all three vehicles, with “a very high level of purity.” At bulk rate with its purity as is, Larpenter estimated the value at around $750,000. The value on the street could be much more however, as cocaine is routinely “stepped on” or diluted with other substances, sometimes at a rate of four times its weight.
No money was seized during the taking of the trucks or the arrests, but agents said their intention was to keep the distribution from reaching the point where cash exchanged hands between actors.
“There is too much that can go wrong when you reach that point,” one deputy said. “We are not about letting drugs get on the streets and letting people overdose, if we can stop it.”
Six people have been arrested thus far in connection with the case.
Antonio Izaguirre, 42, of Hidalgo, Texas; Adrian Robles, 38 and Francisco Ruiz, 41 of Houston; Jesus Hinojosa, Sr., 53 and Jesus Hinojosa, 38, both of Brownsville, Texas and Jose Guadalupe Cervantes-Marro, 47, hometown not given.
One of the six – authorities did not identify which one – suffered a heart attack and has spent time since on a ventilator.
Authorities confirmed that the drugs belong to the Gulf Cartel, described in Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. Department of State reports as a “long-standing (cartel) in Mexico, with a traditional base of power in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.”
Gulf Cartel operations, as of last year, consisted largely of methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin as well as cocaine.
“The Gulf Cartel maintains key distribution hubs in Houston and Atlanta and has also been
linked to drug supplies in Arkansas and Michiga,” says an unclassified Department of Justice intelligence report.
Conflicts within the cartel and with other groups like Los Zetas, as well as arrests of key leaders in Mexico, have led to a decline of the Gulf Cartel’s influence on U.S. soil. But its continued operations, authorities said, have not stopped.
José Antonio Romo-López, alias Don Chucho, and Petronilo Moreno-Flores, alias Panilo, are considered leaders of the group according to federal law enforcement information cited in published reports.
“They are nothing but a fly on the wall,” Larpenter said of the six arrested in Terrebonne. “They are going to be replaced, they are already replaced by other people who will come here and poison our kids and make money illegally. There’s a lot of dope coming in from Mexico and a lot of money leaving America.”
Larpenter said the state of affairs is a key reason why he supports President Donald Trump’s advocacy of tighter borders.
“The Mexican cartel has a porthole in every city in America,” Larpenter said “We have Mexican people here who are good people, hard working people, but from a place where there is no middle class. So they are sending money to their families in Mexico. And at the same time we are taking in a lot of undesirables. We have no army fighting this war on this poison, just a small percentage of police officers.”
The drug trade, Larpenter noted, makes victims of Mexican natives as well.
Some, he said, are forced into carrying illegal drugs into the U.S.
“If they don’t come their families might be executed in Mexico,” Larpenter said. “I call it Santa Anna’s revenge. We beat Santa Anna in the Mexican war, and now he gets his revenge by sending floods not just of illegal people but millions of dollars and more in drug money.”
