By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com The one-time Mexican leader of “one of the most notorious multi-national drug trafficking organizations to ever exist” pleaded guilty to a variety of charges in a federal court in San Diego on Wednesday, according to the FBI. Benjamin Arellan-Felix was the leader of the Tijuana Cartel/Arellano-Felix Organization (AFO) from 1986 until…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Suspected drug couriers from the east coast and Panama apparently used some innovation, smuggling cocaine and heroin in small pockets sewn into Lycra shorts and in their hair weaves and wigs, according to the website Government News Service. GNS reports that 12 individuals were charged in a 20-count indictment, the results…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Tuesday in Arizona was a big one for the DEA’s Phoenix Field Office, where authorities seized 44 firearms, 650 pounds of marijuana and a $7.8 million in cash in a 15-month sting dubbed “Operation Crank Call.” The trafficking network is believed to be related to the infamous Sinaloa Cartel of Mexico….
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com One of Venezuela’s most-wanted drug traffickers was extradited to the United States on Thursday, reports Reuters. Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco, also known as Valenciano, had a $5 million bounty on his head. He was captured in the city of Valencia, in central Venezuela last month. Orozco is accused of shipping tons…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com A Lebanese man indicted by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va. in November was charged on Tuesday with coordinating a multi-ton shipment of cocaine to the Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel in the United States, along with laundering hundreds of millions of dollars back to Colombian suppliers, reports local NBC affiliate KETK….
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com A three-year investigation focusing on drug and weapon rings came to an end with 11 arrests in Northern Virginia on Wednesday, reports the Washington Post. Some of those arrested had ties to street gangs. The operation was primarily in Manassas and Fairfax County, and resulted in charges against more than 60 people….
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com Elio Lorenzana, on who’s head the U.S. government placed a $200,000 reward, was peacefully detained after a DEA-supported operation. The lede of the story, on the website InSight (tagline: “Organized crime in the Americas”), reads: “Guatemala has now captured more top-level drug traffickers in the past two years than in the…
By Danny Fenster ticklethewire.com A Manhattan doctor has been supplying street gangs with the powerful painkiller Oxycodone for street sale, authorities say. Dr. Felix Rodriguez was arrested when DEA agents and deputy U.S. Marshals raided his offices Wednesday morning , reports NBC New York. The internal medicine doctor wrote hundreds of prescriptions for gang members…
