Attorney General Eric Holder has announced the arrest of nearly 1,200 individuals on narcotics-related charges and the seizure of more than 11.7 tons of narcotics as part of a 44-month multi-agency law enforcement investigation known as “Project Coronado.”
Project Coronado targeted the distribution netowrk of a major Mexican drug trafficking organization known as La Familia. More than 3,000 federal agents and local law enforement officers operated across the United States to make the arrests during the two-day take down. In addition to the arrests, $3.4 million in U.S. currency, 729 pounds of methamphetamine, 62 kilograms of cocaine, 967 pounds of marijuana, 144 weapons and 109 vehicles were seized.
“This unprecedented, coordinated U.S.law enforcement action—the largest ever undertaken against a Mexican drug cartel—has dealt a significant blow to La Familia’s supply chain of illegal drugs, weapons and cash flowing between Mexico and the United States,” Holder said.
The La Familia cartel is a violent drug trafficking cartel based in the state of Michoacán in southwestern Mexico. According to court documents, La Familia controls drug manufacturing and distribution in and around Michoacán, including the importation of vast quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico into the United States. La Familia is philosophically opposed to the sale of methamphetamine to Mexicans. Instead it exports the drugs for sale and consumption in the United States.
La Familia is a heavily armed cartel that has utilized violence to support its narcotics trafficking business including murders, kidnappings and assaults. According to one indictment unsealed in the Southern District of New York, associates of La Familia in the United States have allegedly acquired military-grade weapons, including assault weapons and ammunition and have arranged for them to be smuggled back into Mexico for use by La Familia. In a criminal complaint filed in Dallas, ATF investigators allege that operatives of La Familia shipped hundreds of firearms from the U.S. to Mexico over a 12-month period ending in October 2009. Individuals indicted in the cases are charged with a variety of crimes, including: conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana; distribution of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana; conspiracy to import narcotics into the United States; money laundering; and other violations of federal law. Numerous defendants face forfeiture allegations as well.
