OFF THE WIRE
By Guillermo Contreras, By Guillermo Contreras
gcontreras@express-news.net
Saying they have "hit at the heart" of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, authorities here announced Friday they have arrested 10 of its members and closed a pipeline that had brought $600 million worth of methamphetamine to the area in the past decade.
The arrests were dubbed "Operation Screaming Eagle" and occurred this week during a national surge of arrests of persons linked to Mexican drug cartels in response to the killing of a U.S. law enforcement officer in Mexico.
Federal, local and state officers arrested 15 affiliates of the Zetas drug cartel and seized $10,000 in cash, guns and drugs in the San Antonio and Austin areas as part of national sweep, which the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said was meant to send a message to the drug smuggling industry that it would not tolerate an attack on its agents.
But the Bandidos arrests were already in the works and were only indirectly part of the sweep, officers said. Also seized in that probe was $200,000 in cash, guns, cocaine and five pounds of high-purity meth.
The DEA said the Bandidos organization had been bringing in 25 kilos of meth per month since 2000, and the total estimated street value was $600 million. DEA agents, Hondo and San Antonio police, IRS criminal investigators, the Texas Department of Public Safety and other agencies spent 18 months investigating the Bandidos in San Antonio, Hondo and Kerrville.
"Those of you who believe (the Bandidos are) simply a motorcycle or social club are wrong," said Mauricio Fernandez, head of the DEA's San Antonio District Office. "This is a ruthless criminal organization."
Added San Antonio Police Chief William McManus: "They are a bunch of bad, bad actors."
The investigation found the group was receiving meth that was 98 to 100 percent pure from the Mongols Motorcycle Club in California. The group also dealt in cocaine.
The drugs were shipped from California to San Antonio hidden in motorcycle parts, and payment for the dope was deposited in accounts of businesses that were nothing more than fronts, court records allege. Fernandez said investigators believe the drugs were obtained from Mexico by the Mongols.
Among those arrested was a vice president of the Bandidos, Wolfgang Kuhn, who pleaded guilty Jan. 25 to conspiracy to possess and distribute methamphetamine, officials said.
Kuhn ran a San Antonio tattoo shop and agents determined that he was receiving drugs from a source in California, Emiliano "Chino" Gonzalez, court records show.
Gonzalez was arrested Wednesday in California, as were three alleged members of the Bandidos: Ricardo Casas, Frank Garcia and Ronnie Garcia. The four are indicted on charges of conspiracy to traffic in meth and cocaine. Gonzalez is also charged with money laundering.
The other five were taken in on state drug-related charges, and at least two others remain on the lam, Hondo police said at the news conference.
