NEW YORK: A 108-count indictment was announced Thursday charging 37 people as participants in a multi-state heroin trafficking operation with ties to Mexico, said U.S. Attorney Zane David Memeger.
The charges include a continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to commit money laundering, 62 counts of money laundering, and 43 drug charges. The defendants were charged with the distribution and attempted distribution of large quantities of heroin in Philadelphia. According to the indictment, since 2008, the Laredo brothers and their gang manufactured and imported heroin from Mexico and supplied other gangs in Philadelphia, Camden and Chicago.
Antonio and Ismael Laredo, the alleged leaders of the gang, are charged with engagement in a continuing criminal enterprise. They allegedly supervised 21 defendants who are charged in connection with the conspiracy to import heroin from Mexico into the United States, and conspiracy to distribute kilogram quantities of heroin manufactured in and smuggled from Mexico into the United States.
“This indictment, and the arrests this morning, are a significant victory in our efforts to combat drug trafficking,” said Memeger. “Because of the persistent and collaborative efforts of multiple law enforcement agencies across the country, a major supplier of heroin to the Philadelphia region is out of business.”
According to the indictment, the Laredo’s smuggled-in from Mexico approximately 1,000 kilograms of heroin using various techniques including placing kilogram quantities of heroin in car batteries, car bumpers, concealed vehicle traps, and sealed fruit and vegetable cans. Antonio and Ismael Laredo allegedly recruited and hired couriers in the United States to transport and deliver multi-kilogram shipments of heroin, originating in Mexico, to heroin distributors affiliated with the Laredo’s in Philadelphia, Camden, Chicago, Atlanta and New York.
Co-defendant Antonio Marcelo Barragan allegedly served as a Mexican-based supplier of raw opium for processing into heroin. Alejandro Sotelo allegedly served as a stash house operator and distributor of the gang’s heroin in Chicago, where he arranged shipment of multi-kilogram quantities of heroin into Philadelphia.
“Heroin is the top enforcement priority of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Philadelphia Field Division,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Gary Tuggle. “Dismantling this extremely violent international drug trafficking organization ended the flow of hundreds of kilograms of Mexican-based heroin into the Philadelphia region and is a direct result of DEA’s resolve to make our communities safer. The flow of Mexican produced heroin into southeast Pennsylvania has been significantly impacted.”
