'The Blondies' cartel chief caught in Mexico City

By E. EDUARDO CASTILLO

MEXICO CITY -- Mexican federal police said Wednesday they detained one of the United States' most-wanted drug traffickers, Luis Rodriguez Olivera, at Mexico City's international airport.

U.S. authorities had offered a reward of up to $5 million for Rodriguez Olivera, who is known by the nickname "Blondie," according to Mexico's Public Safety Department.

Olivera and his brother Esteban are accused of smuggling tons of cocaine and methamphetamine into Europe and the U.S., mainly through Texas. Esteban was extradited to the United States in March.

Luis Rodriguez Olivera, 39, was indicted in U.S. federal court in 2009 on cocaine-smuggling conspiracy and related charges. The red-haired suspect was arrested Tuesday, officials said.

His gang, known as "The Blondies" formed temporary allegiances with bigger Mexican cartels, including the Sinaloa cartel, the Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, officials say. He is being held until a hearing on a U.S. extradition request.

Also Wednesday, Mexican authorities seized 120 metric tons of a precursor chemical used to make methamphetamines at the Pacific coast port of Lazaro Cardenas, the fifth such large shipment seized so far in December.

The Attorney General's Office said the shipment, like the previous four, came from China and was destined for Puerto Quetzal in Guatemala.

The chemical, which filled eight shipping containers, was identified as methylamine.

The latest bust brings to almost 675 metric tons the amount of meth precursors seized in Mexico in December, more than half of the entire amount - 1,200 tons - seized in Mexico in all of 2011.

Experts familiar with meth production call it a huge amount of raw material, noting that under some production methods, precursor chemicals can yield about half their weight in uncut meth.

Authorities said they seized 205 tons of the chemical at Lazaro Cardenas over several days in early December, and on Dec. 19 they announced the discovery of almost 100 metric tons. On Dec. 23, authorities announced the seizure of 229 metric tons of precursor chemicals at the port, and on Dec. 26 another 21 tons were found at another port.

Experts familiar with meth production call it a huge amount of raw material, noting that under some production methods, precursor chemicals can yield about half their weight in uncut meth.

Authorities have not said which cartels the shipments may have belonged to.

The port of Lazaro Cardenas is located in the home territory of the Knights Templar drug cartel, but the Sinaloa and Zetas cartels have been more active in Central America. Officials say the Sinaloa cartel in particular has moved into meth production on an industrial scale.

Mexico has busted a few huge meth laboratories, and traffickers could be looking for other locations to install production.

"When controls over precursors were strengthened in the United States, manufacture shifted to Mexico," according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime 2011 World Drug Report. "As Mexico has responded with strong counter-methamphetamine initiatives, manufacturing activities are increasingly reported from countries in Central and South America."

In Guatemala, National Police spokesman Donald Gonzalez said Puerto Quetzal has tightened controls after a period in which traffickers had moved shipments "with ease" at the terminal.

"Now it is more difficult for that to happen, because better control measures have been implemented," Gonzalez said.

The National Police have reported seizing 7,847 barrels of precursors so far in 2011, with 3,876 of those seized at Puerto Quetzal. No weight measure of those seizures was immediately available, but if those were standard shipping drums, which usually contain 55 gallons or 208 liters, that would suggest Guatemala's total seizures may have equaled or surpassed Mexico's.

Associated Press Writer Sonia Perez contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/12/28/2564907/the-blondies-cartel-chief-caught.html

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