A Mexican cartel member who was deported earlier this month as part of a massive drug crackdown in Arizona was busted just days later ferrying a load of heroin and meth across the border. Hit the jump to read the rest of the story.
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Francisco Guillermo Morales Esquer, 36, was arrested Monday with $1.6 million worth of heroin and meth stashed in his trunk after a 100-mph chase with cops in Phoenix, the Associated Press reported.
Just hours earlier, state and federal had held a press conference touting the bust-up of a billion dollar drug ring with suspected ties to Mexico’s ruthless Sinaloa cartel.
Morales was one of the 76 suspected smugglers swept up during that two-month operation. He was arrested on Oct. 13 during a sting on a suspected cartel hideout in Pinal County.
After local authorities pegged him as a small-time player and decided there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him on drug charges, he was turned over to border patrol and deported back to Mexico.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said his bust this week highlighted the cartel’s relentlessness.
“Here we strike a body blow on the Sinaloa cartel, [and] they’re still operating in a robust fashion,” Babeu said at a news conference Tuesday. “They can regenerate immediately.”
Babeu said federal agents should have prosecuted the thug the first time around for felony re-entry because he had already been deported once before, the AP reported.
Morales faces charges of drug smuggling, possession of drug paraphernalia, felony flight and aggravated assault.
Along with the 76 arrests, the crackdown on Sinaloa gang members in Arizona in September and October seized tens of thousands of pounds of pot, heroin and cocaine, along with more than $750,000 in cash and scores of high-powered weapons.
Authorities said the crew was bringing more than $33 million worth of drugs across the border.
