By Lindsey Connell
WAFF
BIRMINGHAM, AL - What do you know about the Sinaloa cartel?
It’s believed to be connected to the beheading of a Huntsville special needs teen and murder of her grandmother- a case making headlines around the world.
Federal officials are helping to shed some light on the Mexican cartel and how they operate, as well as what’s being done to combat their crimes.
Bret Hamilton, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge for DEA in Alabama, says the vast majority of the drugs trafficked into the U.S. come from the Sinaloa cartel.
“It’s probably the most extensive, most pervasive cartel working in Mexico and throughout the United States. It’s probably the largest and most organized cartel,” Hamilton explained.
“The Sinaloa Cartel is a violent drug cartel. They engage primarily in the trafficking of methamphetamine. They assimilate in the open. They go to areas where there’s heavy or large immigrant populations and they embed in there and then they traffic their narcotics. It’s a problem throughout the United States, not just here,” said Jay Town, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama.
The Sinaloa cartel is a poly-drug organization and they also do human trafficking. They divide their operation into cells.
“They’ll have individuals who are responsible for collecting drugs south of the border, cells that are responsible for transporting drugs from Mexico to transshipment hubs through the US- Atlanta, Phoenix, Dallas. And then from those areas, they’ll have distributers who move drugs further out into places like Huntsville and Birmingham,” Hamilton said.
Based in Mexico, the cartel was long run by Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, who is now in custody in the US pending trial.
Within the United States, members try to maintain a low profile, Hamilton says.
“They try to embed themselves into the local Mexican national community. They’re a very diverse organization. They’re very well organized. They have CEOs and directors of certain aspects of the operation- a director of drugs, trafficking, transportation,” he stated.
DEA agents have had informants tell them that the cartel even has power point presentations about changes and information on their operations.
Cartel members don’t target individual Americans for no reason. They go after people who do business with them and who steal from them, or betray them, Hamilton revealed.
The DEA has long term investigations into the cartel and agents are working all over the world to gain intelligence in an effort to dismantle their operations.
“I can’t get specific, but we have open, active cases on people who we believe are members of the Sinaloa cartel,” Agent Hamilton said.
The murders of 13-year-old Mariah Lopez and her grandmother Oralia Mendoza in Madison County are believed to be linked to the Sinaloa cartel. Some of the players in the investigation are believed to be drug runners for the organization.
In a preliminary hearing last week for one of the suspects in the case, many new details were released.
Mariah Lopez, a 13-year-old, was decapitated and her grandmother, Oralia Mendoza, was also killed last month in Owens Cross Roads. Their bodies were found a week apart in different locations off the same road.
Yoni Martinez Aguilar, 26, and 34-year-old Israel Gonzalez Palomino face capital murder charges in connection with the killings.
In court, Madison County investigators testified that in days before the murder, Aguilar, Palomino, Mendoza and her friend Laticia went to Norcross, Georgia to pick up a large amount of drugs. Something on that trip made Palomino and Mendoza get into a deadly argument.
Investigators said Palomino was once romantically involved with Mendoza, but it was Aguilar who was currently dating Mendoza at the time of the murder.
On June 7, deputies were called to a wooded area on Lemley Drive where Mariah's body was found. From there authorities learned the 13-year-old's grandmother was her primary guardian and was also missing. Family members told investigators about the grandmother's friends and who may have seen her last.
Palomino and Aguilar both went willingly to be interviewed by investigators.
The Madison County Sheriff's Office interviewed both Aguilar and Palomino, but the investigator said it wasn't until the second interview that Aguilar spilled more information and demonstrated how the murders happened. He told investigators where Mariah's body could be found once authorities told him that their cellphone pings put them at the location.
According to courtroom testimony, Aguilar helped authorities locate Mendoza's body near Moon Cemetery on Cave Springs Road more than a week after Mariah's body was found.
Aguilar told investigators that Palomino held his hand with the knife and moved it back and forth to behead the 13-year old.
Authorities believe the murders happened on June 4.
Aguilar claims Palomino killed Mendoza. She died from “sharp force injury wounds,” according to the sheriff’s office. Investigators say he told them that he was sitting in the passenger seat while Palomino and Mendoza were outside talking. That’s when he said he saw Mendoza's arms slide down the car and Palomino jump in the car and leave with Mariah in the backseat.
In court, the investigator on the case added that Aguilar told them that they had to kill Mariah because she witnessed her grandmother’s murder. Mendoza was Mariah's main guardian. Mariah was also on the autism spectrum.
Investigators added that Mendoza and Laticia had connections to drug operations with the Sinaloa cartel.
Aguilar’s case will now go before a grand jury. Palomino denies he made Aguilar kill Mariah. His preliminary hearing was pushed back, and a new date has not yet been set.
The victims and suspects all lived in Huntsville.
U.S. Attorney Jay Town says a lot of the meth the Sinaloa cartel bringing into the U.S. is laced with fentanyl, making it even more dangerous with the deadly opiate mixed in.
He is not familiar with the specifics of the Lopez/Mendoza investigation because it is a Madison County Sheriff’s Office case but acknowledged that it’s evidence of what the cartel is capable of.
“Unfortunately, drug cartels are alive and well in the United States, in Alabama and in the northern district and this is just another example, a horrific example, of that,” Town said. “They’re murderous, they’re violent and these are individuals who are ripe for the dealing with by the DEA, ATF and FBI and certainly our justice system.”
He has a message to the public about the work being done to track down cartel members and prosecute them.
“We are aggressively pursuing all members of the Sinaloa Cartel inside the Northern District of Alabama. I want to assure residents that we are taking it as seriously as possible. Folks everywhere in the US need to know that the DEA is doing its level best to gain intel in their investigation into this cartel so that we can get rid of them for good,” Town stated.
http://www.waff.com/story/38696715/d...a-cartel-in-al
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