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Eight men were indicted for their role in what prosecutors say was a large-scale drug operation.
(File photo)
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Eight men have been indicted by a federal grand jury for what prosecutors say is a large-sale drug operation that brought heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine to Cleveland from Mexico.
The men, led by Jose Palacio of McAllen, Texas and Efren Vega, of Cleveland, were caught talking on wiretaps about bringing drugs to Northeast Ohio and dealing them on the city's West Side, court documents show. The group then laundered their proceeds through wire transfers and money orders.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Palacio, as well as Heleodoro Zepeda and Hugo Aguilar, both of Texas, and Jacobo Banda-Bermudez, of Mexico, obtained the drugs in Mexico. Palacio and Zepeda then had family members and friends cart the drugs across the border using hidden compartments in the vehicles they were driving, the release says.
Vega, also known as "El Diablo," received the drugs in Cleveland and bought some of them for thousands of dollars, the release states. The rest went to suppliers in Houston.
(You can read the indictment, as well as a criminal complaint filed against Palacio, at the bottom of the story.)
Palacio, 40, and Vega, 47, were arrested in May and are in jail.
William Overdear, Abdel Khalil and Anthony Konicek, three Cleveland-area suspects, were arrested on Thursday and pleaded not guilty in front of Magistrate Judge Nancy Vecchiarelli.
Aguilar, Zepeda and Banda-Bermudez are still at large, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph Pinjuh said.
Prosecutors said they are asking the suspects to forfeit the money made in the drug trafficking. Pinjuh said agents do not know exactly how much they are looking to seize, but it is likely more than $1 million.
The majority of that money is in Texas, though. Palacio abandoned his car and fled after he was stopped by a police after crossing the border in Hidalgo, Texas in August 2014, the indictment states.
In addition to the car, Palacio left behind $422,000, the indictment shows.
Jaime Serrat, Palacio's attorney, did not return a phone call Thursday. Vega's attorney, Brian McGraw, declined to comment.
The 15-count indictment follows a year-long investigation into the drug ring by the Northern Ohio Law Enforcement Task Force and the Department of Homeland Security. Pinjuh said more people may be charged, as agents are working to identify everybody heard while monitoring the wiretaps.
According to the indictment:
Palacio, Zepeda and Aguilar also robbed rival drug traffickers in McAllen Texas and tipped off law enforcement to get rid of their competition. They also installed tracking devices on their cars and the cars of their competition as the smugglers moved drugs between Mexico and the United States.
The defendants would use code words such as "Chinese ones," "brown one," "soft drinks," "bumpy" and "apparatus" to disguise the fact that they were talking about drugs during their phone conversations.
In one exchange, made on April 4, Palacio told Vega that several pounds of cocaine he was having delivered to the U.S. fell into the water when the couriers traveled by boat.
After receiving this news, Vega said to still send it to him, as he can dry it off.