Drug trafficking in Racine leads to federal arrests in El Paso Texas

Federal agents arrested two women in El Paso and six people in Las Cruces on Thursday morning in connection with a drug-trafficking organization that transported marijuana and cocaine across the country.

Federal indictments issued in New Mexico described a sophisticated drug organization that used “twin” vehicles (one empty, one with a drug load) and counter-surveillance, including following a law- enforcement agent for five miles.

Twenty people were indicted as part of Operation Short Final, a multi-agency investigation into a conspiracy linking narco-traffickers in Mexico to bulk drug-buyers in the Midwest, Tennessee and Colorado.

The arrests shut down “a significant pipeline used by Mexican drug traffickers and their U.S. based confederates to distribute drugs throughout the United States, and then funnel the proceeds from drug sales back to Mexico,” U.S. Attorney Kenneth J. Gonzales of New Mexico said in a statement.

Officials said Operation Short Final began in March after the Drug Enforcement Administration in Milwaukee learned suspected marijuana traffickers from Racine, Wis.

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