Hundreds of race horses used by high-level Mexican cartel members to
launder millions of dollars in drug money will be auctioned off next
month, a judge ruled. About 379 horses, all allegedly bought with dirty money by Zetas
cartel leaders to mask their multi-million dollar drug operations, will
be sold at auction Nov. 1-3 in Oklahoma City, The Oklahoman reports. The horses are being auctioned by the Internal Revenue Service. In late May, agents raided a sprawling ranch in Oklahoma and a
prominent quarter horse track in New Mexico to take down the alleged
horse-breeding operation. An indictment accused Miguel Angel TreviƱo
Morales, a key figure in the Zetas cartel, of setting up a horse
operation that a younger brother operated from a ranch near Lexington,
south of Oklahoma City. The operation bought, trained, bred and raced
quarter horses throughout the southwest United States, including the
famed Ruidoso Downs track in New Mexico. "This case is a prime example of the ability of Mexican
drug cartels to establish footholds in legitimate U.S. industries and
highlights the serious threat money laundering causes to our financial
system," Richard Weber, the chief of the IRS' criminal investigation
unit, said at the time...more
Issues of concern to people who live in the west: property rights, water rights, endangered species, livestock grazing, energy production, wilderness and western agriculture. Plus a few items on western history, western literature and the sport of rodeo... Frank DuBois served as the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003. DuBois is a former legislative assistant to a U.S. Senator, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior, and is the founder of the DuBois Rodeo Scholarship.
Tuesday, October 09, 2012
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