Mexico Trucker Online

An indictment charging 32 people, including seven from Laredo, with conspiracy, drug trafficking and money laundering charges, is scheduled to be unsealed this morning in federal court.The indictment culminates a two-and-a-half-year DEA-led investigation involving more than 20 local, state and federal agencies.

The investigation, “Operation Puma,” raked in 20 tons of cocaine and marijuana and more than $7 million in cash and drug-related assets belonging to an unnamed international Mexican-based, drug trafficking and money laundering organization.

Operation Puma was named after “El Puma,” a former Mexican police officer, Carlos Landin-Martinez. It targeted an organization that DEA agents suspect is responsible for smuggling thousands of kilograms of cocaine and multi-ton quantities of marijuana across the U.S.–Mexico border and laundering the proceeds.

International, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies worked across the southwest border performing the investigation. Agents made arrests in Laredo, McAllen, San Antonio and Dallas. Most of the arrests, 27 of the 32, were made in the southern district of Texas, officials said. Eleven arrests were made Thursday.

Operation Puma raked in 2.8 tons of cocaine, more than 17.5 tons of marijuana and $5.5 million in U.S. currency, according to DEA agents. Other property, obtained through drug trafficking proceeds, was also recovered.

DEA special agents said Landin-Martinez and others used various smuggling and concealment methods. They included moving quantities of cocaine through a drainage culvert, used to carry ditch water, and positioning vehicles by a manhole. Editors Note: No mention of Mexican trucks because they are rarely used to transport drugs and contraband across the border.

Landin-Martinez is accused of acting as the “gatekeeper,” collecting tolls from those smuggling contraband across a cross-border area known as “Reynosa Plaza.”

“El Puma” was arrested in McAllen on July 14, after an off-duty DEA agent spotted him shopping in a grocery store.

“For years, drug trafficking organizations operating along the Rio Grande, on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, have presented difficult challenges for law enforcement authorities working to disrupt and dismantle their operations,” said Zoran B. Yankovich in a written statement issued Thursday. Yankovich is the Special Agent in charge of the DEA’s Houston Field Division.

“We have had our successes but Operation Puma represents the use of cutting-edge investigative techniques and unprecedented cooperation between the U.S. law enforcement and the Mexican government to meet the challenge. The message to these organizations should be clear: ‘Use the cross-border area at your own peril’.”

Investigation details and the people involved were scarce. Those arrested are scheduled to be arraigned this morning.