Rounding up the "family cartel"

NY Times:

Calling it a “significant blow” to the operations of a major Mexican drug cartel, Attorney General Eric Holder announced on Thursday the arrests of 303 people and the seizure of illegal drugs, weapons and millions of dollars over the past two days in a series of coordinated raids in 19 states.

At a news conference in Washington, Mr. Holder said the raids were aimed at the United States operations of the La Familia Michoacána drug cartel, which he described as the newest and most violent of Mexico’s five drug cartels.

“While this cartel may operate from Mexico, the toxic reach of its operations extends to nearly every state within our own country,” he said.

In Dallas alone on Wednesday, he said, 77 people were arrested.

Beyond the arrests, Mr. Holder said, the authorities seized more than $32 million in United States currency, more than 2,700 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 2,000 kilograms of cocaine, about 16,000 pounds of marijuana and 29 pounds of heroin during the 44-month effort. More arrests are expected.

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This sounds like an operation that paid for itself. South of the border this group has been one of the more murderous of the Mexican cartels. They specialized in terrorist killings in an attempt to intimidate their adversaries and law enforcement.