Drug Enforcement Administration agents say they arrested a major player in a growing Mexican drug cartel with operations in North Texas and seized nearly $1 million worth of meth Wednesday.
Federal agents said the drugs were housed in a North Dallas storage shed then sold to more than a dozen drug dealers around North Dallas and Garland. A lot of the product, agents said, was transported out-of-state to Arkansas drug dealers.
About a dozen agents were involved in Wednesday's bust, which recovered drugs, guns, bullets and tens of thousands of dollars in cash, they said.
It started early Wednesday afternoon when DEA agents arrested a Mexican national at a house in West Tawokoni, in rural Hunt County. Agents said the man is tied to the "New Generation" drug cartel and produced large quantities of meth in a homemade lab.
Because of the smell associated with making methamphetamine, agents said many cartel players prefer to produce the drug in rural areas to avoid detection.
The suspect would then drive large quantities of finished meth – or ICE – to the shed in North Dallas, near Interstate 635 and Plano Road, investigators said. That's where he'd sell kilograms of product to North Dallas, Lake Highlands and Garland drug dealers, who in turn would sell smaller grams of it to people in local neighborhoods, street corners, motels and bars.
Agents seized several kilograms of meth, a handful of guns and roughly $50,000 in the raid.
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The name of the undocumented immigrant arrested wasn't immediately available Wednesday night. Agents said he has not been transferred over to the U.S. Marshal's Office.
