Send Lawyers, Guns and Money (And Drugs, Lots of Drugs)

By Robert Wilonsky Wed., Sep. 17 2008 at 2:23 PM

Categories: Crime

Daniel Rodrigue

No, this was not the buffet spread at today's drug-bust announcement.

Yesterday, 300 law enforcement agents were involved in the largest one-day seizure of drugs and cash in North Texas -- ever. They arrested 22 alleged members of drug trafficking cells associated with Mexico’s Gulf Cartel. Officers seized 300 kilos of cocaine, 400 pounds of methamphetamine, approximately 20 weapons and more than $1 million in cash.

This morning, the seized bills and blow were piled high on snow-white table clothes emblazoned with Drug Enforcement Administration logos in preparation for a press conference announcing the continuing success of the 15-month long investigation dubbed “Project Reckoning.”

Daniel Rodrigue

U.S. Attorney Richard Roper and Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins

Led by the DEA, Reckoning is a multi-agency law enforcement effort focusing on the trafficking of tons of meth, cocaine, marijuana and heroin into the United States by the Gulf Cartel -- one of the largest and most powerful trafficking cartels in Mexico. Though several of those arrested have residences listed in Dallas, the takedowns and seizures occurred all over North Texas, and Terri Wyatt, the special agent assigned as the public information officer for the Dallas Field Division of the DEA, told Unfair Park that “because of certain aspects still under investigation,” the actual locations of arrests may not be available to the public until sometime early next week.

“This was huge,” Richard B. Roper, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Texas told Unfair Park. “It was largest combined seizure of money and drugs conducted in a single day in North Texas, ever.”

And, admittedly, the cashish strewn all over table was so voluminous that it was hard to photograph in one shot. --Daniel Rodrigue

Daniel Rodrigue