Feds will help battle cartels

LOS ANGELES – U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday the Obama administration can help area officials fight street gangs in the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier.

Speaking at a downtown news conference where he announced the distribution of $30 million in federal stimulus money, Holder said the federal government will continue to strengthen its fight against Mexican drug cartels supplying contraband to street gangs through the Mexican Mafia, also known as La Eme.

“The guns, drugs and bulk cash that are the backbone of the cartels’ business contribute to addiction and drug-related violence in our communities,” Holder said.

But he stressed the feds need help from local agencies to combat the problem.

“All the best ideas don’t come from Washington, D.C.,” Holder said. “The first thing we need to do is listen to the law enforcement officers who are out on the street.”

While no money was specifically given to the Los Angeles region, officials believe positive effects will be felt locally.

Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Timothy Landrum, who oversees the Los Angeles field office, said that Mexican drug cartels send as much as $24billion worth of drugs across the Southwest border per year.

“We must be ruthless in our pursuit against them,” Landrum said.

In recent weeks a turf battle in the San Gabriel Valley over drug sales has pitted the Bassett Grande, El Monte Flores and Puente 13 street gangs against one another. The battle has resulted in seven shootings and three homicides in and around La Puente since the beginning of June.

In Los Angeles County, 42 percent of homicides are gang-related, according to county statistics.

“A lot of shootings have to do with drug deals done bad,” Los Angeles County sheriff’s Lt. Tim Wolak said.

Holder said he believes that going after the Mexican drug cartels will limit local street crime, but it will require a strong law enforcement presence at the border.

“We are intensifying our efforts to investigate, extradite, prosecute and punish the cartel leaders and their henchmen,” Holder said. “The routes these organizations use to traffic their drugs, guns and cash too often include the main streets of our communities – so we have increased our law enforcement presence on the Southwest border and in Mexico.”

Time and again, Holder said, the power of a coordinated law enforcement effort has netted results.

For example, Drug Enforcement Administration officials on Wednesday said the work of a 2007 task force in the San Gabriel Valley helped officials tap the inner workings of La Eme.

A raid of homes in West Covina, La Puente and Azusa led to the arrest of 18 suspected Mexican Mafia gang members. During the raid, authorities seized an assortment of handguns, shotguns, assault rifles and quantities of methamphetamine, marijuana and heroin.

The investigation was prompted by the killing of Good Samaritan Paul Whitehead, 44, of Bassett. He was fatally shot outside his parents’ home in March 2006 after confronting a group of taggers affiliated with Puente 13.

Wolak said the arrests related to the Whitehead case made a dent in the Puente 13 gang but left a power vacuum in northeast La Puente and Valinda.

Holder’s Los Angeles visit on Wednesday comes nearly two months after the U.S. Department of Justice announced its Mexico Cartel Strategy. It uses federal prosecutor-led task forces that bring together federal, state and local law enforcement components to identify, disrupt and dismantle the Mexican drug cartels through investigation, prosecution and extradition of their key leaders and facilitators, and seizure and forfeiture of their assets.