Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Joseph Arabit, the new head of the Houston Division of the DEA, arrives with a plethora of border experience that authorities hope will help crack down on drug cartel activity between the Texas-Mexico border, KHOU.com reports.
Arabit previously was in charge of the DEA office in El Paso at a time of intense activity from rival drug cartels crossing the border into the U.S.
“The murder rate in Juarez started to climb in 2008,” said Arabit recalling his first few months as special-agent-in-charge in El Paso.
Despite the violence across the border of El Paso, the U.S. city remained relatively safe because of Arabit’s actions to work with local, state and other federal agencies to clamp down.
“Once we had those individuals identified we did all that we could to link them to a U.S. crime they had committed in the past and then took it a step further,” Arabit said.
