A cocaine bust involving an
87-year-old man has led to another major drug prosecution for the federal
government, this one involving a Mexican drug cartel run by 18 people, the U.S.
Attorneys office announced today.
A second superseding indictment on
Wednesday charged 18 people with running a massive, multimillion-dollar cocaine
ring between Mexico and Detroit, involving more than 800 kilograms of cocaine.
Prosecutors said the indictment is
part of a previous indictment from last year involving Leo Earl Sharp, 87, of
Michigan City, Ind., who was arrested during a traffic stop near Ann Arbor with
229 pounds of cocaine in his pickup. That was at least $2.9 million worth of
cocaine in wholesale value, police said.
In court last year, Sharp did not
offer a full explanation about what happened. But he did try telling the
magistrate that he was forced at gunpoint to haul the cocaine, until his lawyer
stepped in and advised him to just answer the judge's questions.
Ray Richards, Sharp’s attorney, told
the Free Press last year that it was Sharp's first time in the federal court
system, and his client likely was confused by the questioning.
"I'm sure it was quite an
experience for him," said Richards, who described Sharp as "an eclectic
client who found himself in a pretty significant situation."
As for the latest case, federal
prosecutors do not say how Sharp is tied to the Mexican drug case.
They only say that the new
indictment stems from Sharp’s case.
According to the indictment,
defendants Jose Roberto Lucero-Bustamante and Armando Dias-Lucero led a drug
trafficking organization that shipped cocaine on a regular basis from Mexico to
Michigan.
The drug organization, records show,
is a part of the drug cartel based in Sinaloa, Mexico. It helped distribute
between 100 and 300 kilograms of cocaine per month in Metro Detroit, from 2008
through 2011.
Since 2011, DEA agents and other
federal agents have seized more than 200 kilograms of cocaine, and more than
$2.5 million in cash.
Members of the organization resided
in Mexico, Florida, California and Michigan.
Shipments of cocaine would be
received at the Arizona Mexico border, and then driven to Michigan. Here,
authorities said, members would meet at a warehouse in Wyandotte, where massive
quantities of cocaine would be unloaded and distributed to individual members,
some receiving as much as 100 kilograms of cocaine per shipment.
At the warehouse, records show, drug
proceeds would be packaged and loaded into vehicles, including a recreational
vehicle that would be driven by drug couriers to the Mexican border.
“Our drug prosecution efforts are
focused on large drug trafficking organizations like this one, which pour huge
quantities of dangerous drugs into our community,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara
McQuade.
DEA Special Agent in Charge Robert
L. Corso added:
"Shedding light on this
conspiracy makes it quite clear that the Mexican drug cartels are open for
business right here in our backyard.”
Also charged in the indictment are:
Jose Roberto Lucero-Bustamante, 34;
Armando Dias-Lucero, 28; Pedro Delgado-Sanchez, 44; Octavio Humberto Gamez, 38;
Moises Osuna Licona, 43; Theodore J. Czach, 35; Alejandro Aparicio Vargas, 38;
Antonio Simmons, 38; Sergio Cordova Alvarado, 31; Nicholas Dominick Simmons,
24; Kenneth Dwayne Jenkins, 53; David Felix Jurado, 30; Oscar Enriquez
Martinez, 33; Reymoyne Thornton, 39; Walter Ogden, 55; Mark George Bailey, 38;
and Martin Najjar, 36.
Detroit Free PressVideo- Huff Post
hang this old bastard
ReplyDeleteMan..frm the border to michigan...just imagin e how many other cities they are at now..there is no stopping this at all...how do u think it was easy to get around and blow up the twin towers in new York...
ReplyDeleteThis is not " in our own backyard". It is in the middle of our house. It is here! Wake up and smell the coffee!
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the nerve of this cartels, forcing an old defenseless veteran of war men to transport drugs. We need to killed all this Mexican criminals, before they begin raping our women too.
ReplyDeleteHey Anonymous.... STFU.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a society that places such a minimal value on children that pedophiles and child murderers receive lighter sentences than a low level street dealer. Lets go after some real bad guys.
@ anon March 1, 2012 6:08 PM,Wow,do you really believe the story about this guy being forced at gunpoint to move dope?Next thing you know the childmolesters & rapists will come up with this same story & "YOU" will believe it!!What an idiot you are!!
ReplyDelete@ 6:08 You gotta be kidding me.This guy is gonna make up any reason to save his ass. You relly think Sinaloa or any other cartel needs to threaten an old man to get their drugs across our country.There are people (US citizens)making calls right now eager to take this guys job.
ReplyDelete@ 6:29 Where the hell do you live. Dont work like that in Texas.
ReplyDeleteWhen is this damn country going to learn and just freaking end the drug war already? Tax and regulate!!
ReplyDeleteTax & regulate...I totally agree, this country needs to leave the hypocritism aside since USA is the biggest drug user in the world...but Americans talk more shit than anybody and don't do nothing to stop it either...stop buying simple as that!!!
ReplyDeleteThere was someone just like him on the Antiques Roadshow.
ReplyDeleteWas worth $20,000.00.
Great idear,then all the cartels and tweekers for hire can go out and look for jobs....wake up pal It's Friday!!! The only way to stop this shit Is to bring back the death penalty in and legalize guns in Mexico.
ReplyDeletethe coming zombie apocalypse will be when the majority of the US population is high as a kite.
ReplyDeletethese zombies will outnumber the decent people.
you will have no place to hide as they randomly rape, maim, rob and kill any and all they cross paths with.
Zombie apocalypse?? Wtf.. Nothing to do with mexico in anyway.stop playing black ops. Its a gameeeee!!
DeleteWith the welfare collapse of the dollat,the sabatoge of the wealth in the USA,you will see further decay of society which means MORE DRUGS,CRIME,CORRUPTION, a takeover of the govt by the needy class. NOT an excuse just sad, hang the old satchel ass,and his buddys. Did you know the death penalty in china is claimed to cost the State 50.00 Equivelent dollars!
ReplyDeleteMarch 1, 2012 7:30 PM Of course I believe his story, we Americans are saints, and you Mexicans are criminals is in your culture. You only come to U.S. to take advantage of defenseless people like this innocent war veteran.
ReplyDeleteLook at what you people are doing, you are invading our country, according to Sickofit on BB forum you have 20 million illegals plopping out babies left and right that are becoming US Citizens and we will have to support them with tax payers money.
When we invade another country, we do it to save them from themselves, we don't take advantage of them, we don't kill them or force them to do something they don't want to do.
We need to secure our borders.
That's funny, because with all the people using drugs, you would think we would notice at least a few zombies out and about, but we don't. The zombie hypothesis is hilarious!
ReplyDelete3/2 5:24AM,
ReplyDeleteReally stupid comment...Zombies? Dude, put the Xbox down assclown!
3/1 11:58PM,
You gonna 'tax and regulate' murder, kidnapping, extortion too? Your suggestion is not going to make evil men (career criminals) go away! It's a criminal enterprise prohibition of alcohol is gone...right...yet organized crime still exists..doesn't it?
March 1, 2012 11:58 PM
ReplyDeletethey never talk about their own
always blame others
Im pretty positive 6:08 was being sarcastic everyone... Lol
ReplyDelete"Where the hell do you live. Dont work like that in Texas.March 1, 2012 8:10 PM" No Jethro,in Texas pedophiles & rapists get a Sheriffs Badge Or are assigned to do Community Work in their neighborhood Rec-Centers & YMCAs!
ReplyDeleteWell here in Texas we just executed another bum. So maybe you should stay out the YMCA
ReplyDelete@ anon March 2, 2012 7:18 AM,Wow,I love your sarcasm...you invade other countries to save them from themselves & dont kill anyone or force your will upon them!?I would love to hear you say that to the "NATIVE AMERICANS"!Didnt you take their land & "FORCE" them into reservations,didnt you force your religion upon them,"The Native People" who live with the land?Not off the land the way You Saviours do?Too bad the "Native American People" didnt secure their borders & coasts before "YOU" the righteous arrived & "RESCUED" them!
ReplyDeleteMan, Americans and Mexicans suck... Nuke them all
ReplyDeletedeath penalty for drug dealers? really? ridiculous! how about catching the rapists, murderers, child molesters, etc etc. securing the mexican border will not stop this! the drugs will then come from elsewhere... enough with the ignorance. lets man up and take the blame for once fellow americans.
ReplyDeletei would like to say that the government did not do the right thing. i am the son of one of these men, the government should not be able to point assault rifles at an 11 and 15 year old! the government does what they want when they want . they have no rules. my dad has been incarcerated for 1 year and still has not been charged . what does that tell you ?
ReplyDeleteyou are all stupid aint no one forced this old man to do shit he did it his dam self. So if you all dont know the story then dont fucking comment on it its that simple.
ReplyDeletePeoples going to do what they want to do its.called human will when alcohol got legalized there was no huge jump in numbers of those who used it it was the same people who used it illegally that used it legal I'm with the tax and regulate how can you tell another man what he can put in his body or what he can't and I also agree that the American government is out of hand pointing guns at little children when they come in homes that's BS!! especially for a little bit of weed or a pain pill! Cmon folks wake up ever since 9/11 the rate at which the American doctors pushed opiate based pain medicine rose by over 200 percent in just a couple years and now they are confused on why we have a heroin epidemic again. didn't have an epidemic with heroin as bad as it is now since the Vietnam War funny how we go into countries that we are supposed to be saving and there poison ends up flooding our borders by record numbers
ReplyDeletewake up people it's no longer the idea of a majority that matters anymore its the one.rich family who's ideas of what America should be like ideas that get pursuied why do you think we form to the 99 percent back when people was taking over Wall Street and protesting we had something good going Folks and then right when we started to gain momentum they took everything off of the news channels and the young people quit caring or trying again remember every high school throughout America and how many kids that is that will be graduating every year do you honestly think there will be good enough jobs to live on and support a family. when is this amount of people is graduating and moving to the United States every day and the rich keep getting richer here and outsourcing more jobs. that's a recipe for disaster and that's where we are heading we are living in times where it's good to be a Republican as long as you're rich if you're not rich which I'm sure most of you aren't we should be forming groups like the 99 percent again and demanding better jobs and more jobs for our future children
ReplyDelete