Ransom-seekers and other cartelsare responsible for many of those disappearances,with CJNG to blame for thousands,DEA agentssay. U.S. drug agents believe he's in western Mexico, hiding in remote jungles or mountains of Jalisco, Colima or Michocan. U.S. officials have . The CJNG cartel and its backroads drug pipeline had caught the attention of federal authorities, who . In May, a judge sentenced Armas to serve seven years and six months in prison, followed by five years of supervision. On April 6, the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced sanctions against Carlos . March 30, 2022 MEXICO Grisly videos have emerged showing CJNG cartel members beheading rival narcos working under commands from La Vaca. . Members of a cartel cell inKansasCity, withdrug houses in both Kansas and Missouri between 2013 and 2016,splurged on $10,000ticketsto rapper Pitbulls concertand a Louis Vuittonpurse. Americans who may not know of CJNG today should take note, Dodds said. Throughout 2019, reporters analyzed thousands of court records of more than 100 criminal drug cases around the country and talked to more than 150 federal drug agents, police officers, defense attorneys and prosecutors. We're guests in their country.. Someone aware of the Lexington-Louisville operation talked to a DEA agent in 2016, who, in turn, flagged investigators in Kentucky. including the drug-related killings of two Mexican brothers in 2014, one of whom was found . All the CJNG nutthuggers here's your bad ass cartel terrorizing 10 year kids with dynamite. Attackers in armored vehicles opened fire with high-caliber weapons, gunning down officers driving five SUVs. Robert Hammer, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Seattle, told The Courier Journal that cartels take advantage of the Interstate 5 corridor, a straight route that runs from the San Ysidro border crossing north through Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland and into Vancouver, Canada. At first, he supervised work crews at his uncle's construction business building houses, Roberto's attorney, Robert Salisbury, said. Pointing to more than 70,000 Americans who overdosed and died in 2017, Coleman said, Were fighting a war for our families, and (the cartels) are winning.. "When you hear about the drug cartels and the amounts of drugs coming across the border, you start thinking those are big city problems," said Clatsop County Sheriff's Sgt. As they hovered over a cartel convoy, CJNG members fired Russian-made rocket-propelled grenade launchers, shooting down Morales helicopterinto a cluster of trees. Regardless, prosecutors had strong evidence including transcripts from six months of wire taps in 2018 as Farfan chatted about drug shipments. Most people don't associate drug trafficking with the scenic tourist destinations along the Oregon coast, but Mexican cartels seek less scrutiny there. In 2017, Walker led a raid on a couple of Clatsop drug houses, teaming with Seaside, Cannon Beach and Oregon state police. Four men alleged to be leaders in a Mexican cartel enforcement cell have been indicted in San Diego on drug-trafficking charges and are accused of orchestrating a wave of . Last year, a judge sentenced Eduardo to 30 months behind bars, followed by five years supervised release. It has drug cells all across the U.S., even in tiny towns. Despite the capture of certain top leaders, it is now Mexico's foremost criminal threat . "He has transformed his life from being an insular methamphetamine abuser to an active member of the recovery community, mentoring and guiding others who struggle," his attorney argued in a May 6, 2020, sentence memo asking for leniency. Theyre also working to train Mexican police to improve the country's solve rate for kidnappings and murders, which is less than 5%. Investigators uncovered three main pieces of the puzzle that revealed a snapshot of how this drug ring thrived. During his three months in jail, he got sober. If someone you love dies from an overdose tonight, he may very well be to blame. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, Snchez was once a top lieutenant in the CJNG, but split to form his own cartel called La Nueva Plaza in 2017. The Michoacan Attorney Generals Office revealed that the bodies were removed and the scene was largely cleaned by the perpetrators. Drug dealers may not have worried about being caught here, in Clatsop County, a 90-minute drive northwest from the bustling city of Portland. He had to pay $50,000. But betrayal awaited, "We see these nodes or pockets of cartel-related activity springing up in small, rural towns on the east side of Washington, in metropolitan areas like Portland and Seattle. CJNG even established a cell in south-central Virginia, buying or renting a cluster of modest homes in Axton an unincorporated community of roughly 6,500. Mexico's cartel crackdown struggling despite victory? Agents say he typically travels in a convoy, surrounding himself withdozens of well-trained mercenaries armed with military-grade weapons that can tear through tanks, even aircraft. Narcocorrido band Grupo Arriesgado forced out of Tijuana for singing about CJNG. At night,from 2015 through April2017, Maciasdirected the flow of $30 millionworth ofheroin, cocaine, ecstasy, crystal meth and fentanylfromMexico to Kentucky's two largest cities:Lexington and Louisville. But Mexican President Andrs Manuel Lpez Obrador declined Trump's offer for U.S. troops, saying his country doesn't need help. He ran a drug network that trafficked kilos of meth with help from his then-wife, Socorro Elena Gutierrez, from their Washington County home. Just hours after the crash, the cartel carried out coordinated attacks in 39 cities, blowingup banks, gas stations and setting cars and semis on fire on major highways to slow down police reinforcements. He remained in prison until his deportation in 2015, court records show. Eleven months after the Lexington raid, a SWAT team crept in the darkness and blasted off the front door of the tire shop owner's house in Louisville. The violence of 2015 was a wake-upcall,saidTerryCole, a former New York City police officer who oversees DEA agents in Guadalajaraas the assistant regional director forNorth and Central America. CJNG burns rivals face alive as a way of mocking his nickname Ghost Rider. Armas used the couple's home as a drug stash house, paying them with enough meth for their daily fix. He handed the bag to Noe Antonio Machado-Medrano, then age 23. Furthermore, it's part of their propaganda drive to recruit the many youths seeking that "narco"-glamorized life, flashed and filtered by images of beautiful women, mounds of money and a depository of deadly arms. Provided by McCracken County Sheriff's Department. 2023www.courier-journal.com. First, Mexican cartel suppliers established a pipeline to the Portland area. ", The mother of his two youngest children wrote a letter saying: "He is one of the greatest fathers that there is. Farfan refused to talk to agents or prosecutors. The CJNG has also been accused of directly extorting businesses in the capital. 2020 has been an especially savage year in the border city of Tijuana,racking upalmost 2,000 murders almost on par with 2019 and once again earning the label of having the highest murder rate per capita of any city in Mexico. "It's gonna be hard to catch him slippin'," said Mori, the DEA agent overseeing the U.S. criminal investigation against El Mencho. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. Follow him onTwitterandFacebook. CJNG wasn't the only cartel in the Bluegrass State in 2017, but authorities say it was the main supplier of fentanyl when Louisville's Adam Cooley, who sought heroin, snorted 20 times a lethal . This case had some odd twists, including the involvement by a retired U.S. Marine and his wife, an agonizing test of family loyalties and a gruesome threat from Mexico. Signs have also pointed to CJNG widening its footprint in the capital, Mexico City, aligning itself with the Fuerza Anti-Union gang to tackle the city's most extensive criminal enterprise, La Unin Tepito. He doesn't make wild errors; he doesn't hesitate; one word for el Mecho is 'calculated,'" Wesley said. "I still expected that they would be in markets in the Southwest, a little bit into some of the other major corridors, such as Atlanta and Chicago, Evans said. They also contacted more than two dozen accused cartel members or CJNG associates in prison and traveled to Mexico City, Guadalajara and 15 U.S. cities to see firsthand the far-reaching repercussions of El Menchos cartel. Armas also asked them to repackage large amounts of drugs and sell out of their home to users as well as mid-level dealers. But when the days chores were done, Maciasdidn'tsocializewith others over drinks or dinner. "But if you have drugs in your community, and I don't think there is any community that can say they don't have any, it is coming from the drug cartels. El Menchos powerful international syndicate is flooding the U.S. with thousands of kilos of methamphetamines, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl every year despite being targeted repeatedly by undercover stings, busts and lengthy investigations. Prosecutors successfully pushed for 15 years in their sentencing memo, pointing to Farfan's "unwillingness to stop drug trafficking and his unwillingness to remain outside of the United States." In early-morning raids Wednesday, federal agents fanned out across the U.S., culminating a six-month investigation with the primary goal of dismantling the upper echelon of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, known as CJNG. Next steps crucial, experts say, US drug czar wants India to stem flow of chemicals used by Mexican cartels for fentanyl, Ignoring cartel danger, Mexican families scour wilderness for missing loved ones' remains, This small-town Oregon bricklayer had a side hustle: Gun supplier for Mexican drug cartel, Mexico-US investigation links cartel downing of military helicopter to Oregon gun supplier, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. "He was terrified to talk about this," his attorney told The Courier Journal. Agents followed Machado-Medrano as he took a taxi to a bus station and headed to a bathroom. All rights reserved. VIEWER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED. Brenda and Karl Cooley of Louisville certainly didnt know his name when their son Adam overdosed on fentanyl in March 2017. More:He reached 'kingpin' status by selling Mexican cartel-supplied drugs. The victims' wrists were tied using ligatures to prevent them all from bleeding to death. 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