A large Dallas, TX marijuana trafficking ring pretended they were cowboys taking horses between Texas and Arizona. They were recently arrested and it resulted in the cash seizure of $1.7 million, which is one of the biggest seizures ever for Texas law enforcement. Also, there were 17 drug convictions.
A US attorney from the Eastern District of Texas announced the demise of the drug ring at a recent news conference in Garland TX.
According to media reports, the drug ring began to unwind when the local police got a tip in October 2010. Police got the sheriff of the county involved, which then got in contact with the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The US attorney said that the tip was a lucky break that the authorities needed, but he noted that it still takes hard work and skill to be able to take a tip and break up a major drug operation.
The work on this cash seizure case started with a great deal of police surveillance and the case grew from that point.
The drug ring was led by Rufus Rodgers, who rented a ranch in Dallas County. They had three horses that they would put into a horse trailer that also had living quarters. Inside the air conditioning unit for the trailer was all of the cash.
They would drive to Arizona, and Rodgers would fly various cities in that state and monitor the progress of his crew. They stayed in various hotels and exchanged the cash for high quality marijuana from Mexico.
When they drove back to Dallas, the compartment in the trailer would be stuffed with 1000 pounds of marijuana. The drug was then distributed within hours when they got back to the ranch.
Investigators stated that those in the drug ring would go between Dallas and Arizona about three times each month. Investigators think that the ring distributed over 60000 pounds of marijuana in Texas from January 2009 until December 2010.
At that time, police went to the ranch with search warrants as the men were getting ready for another trip to Arizona. The horse trailer was filled with cash. The federal authorities seized $685,000 in cash that day.
Later, investigators searched a storage unit nearby and found four safes that were stuffed with cash, with a total of $1 million. Guns, money bags, drug ledgers and money counters also were recovered.
Eight defendants ended up pleading guilty to charges of drug possession and trafficking. Some were sentenced to five years of probation, while others were sent to federal prison with terms of 18 to 240 months.
Also seized in the investigation were a 2004 BMW, a 2008 Mercedes, two revolvers, two rifles and two 9 mm pistols.
The horses that were being used in the operation were neglected and were given to the owner of the ranch. He had no idea what his renters were doing on the ranch.
Each of the agencies that were involved in this investigation got a share of the cash that was seized. The Dallas police department got $1.2 million, and the Wylie Police Dept got $86,000. The sheriff’s office in Collin County got $68,000, and $344,000 went to the US federal asset forfeiture fund.
According to the Dallas police, these types of drug busts do not happen every day, but they do happen fairly regularly. It appears that there is a very strong appetite in this part of the country for marijuana, particularly the high quality product that comes from Mexico. The police continue to try to break up these major drug trafficking rings so as to put a major crimp in the supply.
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