Will You Please Pass The Razor Blade And Mirror?

By Sam Bakken in News on Dec 14, 2004 9:13PM

Well the weather outside isn't yet frightful. And thanks to the FBI, IRS and Chicago Police Department forecasts aren't calling for "snow" in Chicago anytime soon.

Authorities announced yesterday that they'd dealt quite a blow to a Mexican drug cartel allegedly led by one of the biggest drug lords in Mexico—Isamel Zambada-Garcia.

An investigation by the FBI, IRS and CPD led to a seizure of almost 64 kilos of cocaine and $700,000 in cash and the arrests of 12 people here in Chicago on Friday. The feds have charged 25 people they say were involved in the Chicago-based extension of Zambada-Garcia's Mexican Drug Trafficking Federation. They already had three people in custody before Friday's bust, and 10 are still on the run. Investigators say that the entire operation has yielded total seizures of almost 200 kilos of cocaine and $3 million in cash.

Investigators tapped 26 telephones and used two roving wiretaps to record conversations between leaders of the Chicago ring on a number of cell phones that the leaders sometimes threw away after just one conversation.

A snippet of one intercepted conversation via the Sun-Times:

"Listen, things are getting very bad man," Naranjo said.
Garcia replied, "Yeah, things are getting ugly."

You'd better pace yourself with that last eight ball. It could be your last for a while.