Feds target cocaine ring in Minnesota and Texas
A federal grand jury in Minneapolis has indicted more than two dozen people from Minnesota and Texas in an alleged cocaine trafficking ring tied to the Mexican-based Gulf Cartel. The cartel supplies cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine and heroin.
The indictment, which was filed April 21 but unsealed today, charges 26 individuals, mostly from southern Texas, with distributing methamphetamine and cocaine in Minnesota from December 2005 to April 20, 2009.
The indictment includes 29 counts related to conspiracy to traffic methamphetamine and cocaine.
Those indicted from Minnesota and Wisconsin include: Juan Fidel Aleman, 31, Swanville, Minn.; Nicolas Lara Munoz, 48, Burnsville, Minn.; Maria Luisa Stay, 28, Princeton, Minn.; Maria Almaguer, 40, Cold Spring, Minn.; Oscar Damian Limon, 30, Faribault, Minn.; Bartolo Enrique Vega, Jr., 40, Owatonna, Minn.; Carlos Alejandro Azham Martinez, 31, Owatonna; David Paul Harlander, 54, St. Joseph, Minn.; Luiz Gerardo Flores, 27, St. Paul; Refugio Hernandez-Muniz, 51, Donnelly, Minn.; and Martin Jimenez, 32, North Freedom, Wis.
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The U.S. Attorney's office says authorities began investigating the ring in April 2008. Police seized more than $505,000 in four separate incidents.
The office also says police seized more than 41 kilos of cocaine from customers and couriers in Minnesota and Texas since last July.
Authorities executed search warrants at homes in Bloomington, Brooklyn Park, Cold Spring, St. Wendel Township and St. Cloud, Minnesota.
A separate criminal complaint says a drug enforcement agent employed by the Chicago field division, Minneapolis St. Paul District Office, received a tip from confidential reliable source that two of the ring members were traveling to Minnesota by bus.
The informant said Esaul Miranda and Arcelia Reyes were transporting cocaine to distribute in Minnesota. A cooperating witness told the agent that Miranda and Reyes would get off the bus at the Burnsville bus station on April 25.
After police watched the area, they recognized the two getting off a bus and approached them. The complaint says Reyes consented to having officers search her bag and they found two kilos of cocaine.
After Reyes was given her Miranda warning, she agreed to provide a statement and admitted to possessing the cocaine.
The U.S. Attorney's office in Minneapolis also says about a dozen members of the ring are also charged with laundering more than $2.4 million, by depositing less than $10,000 into various accounts in Minnesota that were withdrawn in Texas on about the same day.