FruityBud
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This wasn't an average pot bust.
The drug dealers had the standard hallmarks of their trade: hundreds of bales of marijuana, fleets of stolen cars, bundles of cash and a small arsenal of weapons.
But these Mexico-to-Arizona drug runners were different: They had radio towers set up in the desert to communicate with each other, as many as 50 scouts scattered through the rugged border country to direct the operation, and a mobile ramp to help vehicles hop the border fence.
"The ramp trucks are new," said John Stonehouse, an airborne officer with Customs and Border Protection in Tucson. "The creation of the border fence resulted in the creation of the ramp truck. I'm sure the design was a copy off military ramping systems."
Officials say the Garibaldi-Lopez drug-trafficking organization was as sprawling as it was complex.
The group is suspected of distributing thousands of pounds of marijuana from Phoenix throughout the United States before authorities dismantled it, resulting in 59 indictments and 40 arrests made early this week.
Like other drug operations, members of this ring utilized cars and trucks, many of which were stolen from the Valley. They would leave Sonoyta, Mexico, just across from Lukeville, loaded with thousands of pounds of pot and make their way to the border, but the similarity to a run-of-the-mill drug operation ended there.
Once at the U.S.-Mexican boundary, agents said, the vehicles would clear the border fence using a truck with a ramp built on top, a scaled-down version of the semis that drop off cars at auto lots.
After crossing the border and entering the Tohono O'odham Reservation, the smugglers would stick to ravines and washes as they made their way toward Pinal County under the cover of dark.
Scouts scattered throughout the desert pointed the way and served as a lookout for law enforcement, and when authorities did get close, the smugglers were ready: They would ditch the cars under camouflage and scrub brush, sometimes for days, until the danger passed.
"They could get a car to 59th Avenue and Baseline (Road) without ever hitting the pavement," Attorney General Terry Goddard said at a Tuesday news conference.
Once the cargo arrived at a safe house in Pinal County, smugglers transferred it to a clean vehicle with up-to-date registration and moved the drugs into Phoenix for distribution through the rest of the nation.
It wasn't until Phoenix police began making busts in the Valley and communicating with other agencies around the state last January that authorities realized they might be on to something larger than the typical smuggling ring, Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said.
Ultimately, it required the work of Phoenix police, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Public Safety, along with federal agents from Drug Enforcement, customs, immigration and Border Patrol to bring the group down.
The balance sheet of the Garibaldi-Lopez ring shows why it was so sophisticated.
The group, which federal agents linked to the notorious Sinaloa cartel from Mexico, smuggled up to 2 million pounds of pot over the border in the past five years, with a wholesale value estimated at about $1 billion, agents said.
Despite their high-volume business, it was the drug ring's ingenuity that allowed it to literally slip under the law-enforcement radar for years.
Another organization will likely step up to take over the business of the Garibaldi-Lopez ring, authorities acknowledged.
The cash that comes from marijuana sales fuels other operations in the Sinaloa cartel's drug trade, which makes pot sales in the state a crucial part of the operation, said Matthew Allen, a special agent in charge with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"Every time they lose cocaine, meth, heroin, they make up those losses by selling marijuana in the United States," Allen said.
It was the organization's relative indifference to the fate of their pot shipments that allowed them to keep pushing drugs north of the border, even though agencies were consistently busting the loads for the past year.
A pound of the marijuana might be worth $50 in Mexico but could wholesale for $1,000 or more in Phoenix and much more in other markets around the country, officials say.
"This group could care less about losing 2,000 to 4,000 pounds per week," Piano said.
It took the combined intelligence and resources of all the agencies involved to take down the sprawling ring, said Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez, whose jurisdiction encompasses a common smuggling route.
"With the resources we have, we would make a small - not even a dent - in the amount of drugs coming up through that corridor," Vasquez said.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/793x94
The drug dealers had the standard hallmarks of their trade: hundreds of bales of marijuana, fleets of stolen cars, bundles of cash and a small arsenal of weapons.
But these Mexico-to-Arizona drug runners were different: They had radio towers set up in the desert to communicate with each other, as many as 50 scouts scattered through the rugged border country to direct the operation, and a mobile ramp to help vehicles hop the border fence.
"The ramp trucks are new," said John Stonehouse, an airborne officer with Customs and Border Protection in Tucson. "The creation of the border fence resulted in the creation of the ramp truck. I'm sure the design was a copy off military ramping systems."
Officials say the Garibaldi-Lopez drug-trafficking organization was as sprawling as it was complex.
The group is suspected of distributing thousands of pounds of marijuana from Phoenix throughout the United States before authorities dismantled it, resulting in 59 indictments and 40 arrests made early this week.
Like other drug operations, members of this ring utilized cars and trucks, many of which were stolen from the Valley. They would leave Sonoyta, Mexico, just across from Lukeville, loaded with thousands of pounds of pot and make their way to the border, but the similarity to a run-of-the-mill drug operation ended there.
Once at the U.S.-Mexican boundary, agents said, the vehicles would clear the border fence using a truck with a ramp built on top, a scaled-down version of the semis that drop off cars at auto lots.
After crossing the border and entering the Tohono O'odham Reservation, the smugglers would stick to ravines and washes as they made their way toward Pinal County under the cover of dark.
Scouts scattered throughout the desert pointed the way and served as a lookout for law enforcement, and when authorities did get close, the smugglers were ready: They would ditch the cars under camouflage and scrub brush, sometimes for days, until the danger passed.
"They could get a car to 59th Avenue and Baseline (Road) without ever hitting the pavement," Attorney General Terry Goddard said at a Tuesday news conference.
Once the cargo arrived at a safe house in Pinal County, smugglers transferred it to a clean vehicle with up-to-date registration and moved the drugs into Phoenix for distribution through the rest of the nation.
It wasn't until Phoenix police began making busts in the Valley and communicating with other agencies around the state last January that authorities realized they might be on to something larger than the typical smuggling ring, Phoenix police Lt. Vince Piano said.
Ultimately, it required the work of Phoenix police, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and the Department of Public Safety, along with federal agents from Drug Enforcement, customs, immigration and Border Patrol to bring the group down.
The balance sheet of the Garibaldi-Lopez ring shows why it was so sophisticated.
The group, which federal agents linked to the notorious Sinaloa cartel from Mexico, smuggled up to 2 million pounds of pot over the border in the past five years, with a wholesale value estimated at about $1 billion, agents said.
Despite their high-volume business, it was the drug ring's ingenuity that allowed it to literally slip under the law-enforcement radar for years.
Another organization will likely step up to take over the business of the Garibaldi-Lopez ring, authorities acknowledged.
The cash that comes from marijuana sales fuels other operations in the Sinaloa cartel's drug trade, which makes pot sales in the state a crucial part of the operation, said Matthew Allen, a special agent in charge with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"Every time they lose cocaine, meth, heroin, they make up those losses by selling marijuana in the United States," Allen said.
It was the organization's relative indifference to the fate of their pot shipments that allowed them to keep pushing drugs north of the border, even though agencies were consistently busting the loads for the past year.
A pound of the marijuana might be worth $50 in Mexico but could wholesale for $1,000 or more in Phoenix and much more in other markets around the country, officials say.
"This group could care less about losing 2,000 to 4,000 pounds per week," Piano said.
It took the combined intelligence and resources of all the agencies involved to take down the sprawling ring, said Pinal County Sheriff Chris Vasquez, whose jurisdiction encompasses a common smuggling route.
"With the resources we have, we would make a small - not even a dent - in the amount of drugs coming up through that corridor," Vasquez said.
hxxp://tinyurl.com/793x94
