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Home Front: WoT
15 Cartel Members Convicted in South Texas Drug Trafficking Conspiracy
2022-05-02
[Breitbart] Fifteen members of one of Mexico’s most violent drug cartels pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to helping smuggle tons quantities of drugs into Texas. The cartel members will be sentenced later this year.

The convicted drug smugglers are all part of the Cartel Del Noreste faction of Los Zetas, a criminal organization based in Nuevo Laredo The cartel is responsible for a large part of the violence in the Mexican border state of Tamaulipas and for several violent crimes in South Texas.

This week, Gustavo Alberto Duenes-Perez, went before a U.S. District Judge and pleaded guilty to various drug conspiracy charges. Duenes-Perez is the fifteenth member of the CDN-Los Zetas to plead guilty in recent days. All fifteen members will be sentenced in June. The cartel members along with several other individuals who remain unnamed in a multicount criminal indictment are all accused of working for the CDN-Los Zetas cartel.

According to information released by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas, the case began in March 2019 when agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration learned that the CDN-Los Zetas provided Duenes-Perez and his associates with funds to purchase a utility truck that would be used to transport drugs to a warehouse located in Laredo, Texas.

Authorities monitored the vehicle and through surveillance operations learned that Duenez-Perez regularly drove the vehicle. The drug smuggling cell that operated in Texas used personal vehicles and utility trucks to move drugs within Laredo from various stash houses and onto a ranch.

In April of that year, authorities followed Duenes-Perez as he and his group moved a load of drugs from a ranch to a stash house in Laredo.

Authorities raided the ranch and stash house, seizing a total of 11,240 kilograms (approximately 12 tons) of marijuana with an approximate value of $11.6 million.
Related:
Cartel Del Noreste: 2022-05-01 Narco-Banners Promise More Violence in Mexican Border State Capital
Cartel Del Noreste: 2022-04-01 Gulf Cartel Commander Killed in Mexican Border City
Cartel Del Noreste: 2022-02-04 Border Patrol agents fired upon from Mexico, return fire: sources
Related:
Laredo: 2022-04-30 USDA Inspector Pleads Guilty to Taking Bribes from Mexican Ranchers
Laredo: 2022-04-26 Moment border agents and Texas state cops pry open wooden crates to discover them packed with migrants
Laredo: 2022-04-16 Abbott: Enhanced Inspections Have Forced Multiple Mexican States to Negotiate on Border Security, We'll Keep Inspections if They Don't
Posted by:Skidmark

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