Mexican authorities Saturday arrested eleven Colombians who are thought
to be part of an alleged drug-trafficking ring in an upscale
neighborhood of Mexico city, seizing weapons, vehicles —
and lions.
The Colombians, one U.S. citizen, two Mexicans and an Uruguayan
were detained during a raid in a sprawling mansion in Desierto de los
Leones on Saturday, organized-crime prosecutor Marisela Morales told a
news conference.
Morales identified the gang’s leader as Teodoro Fino Restrepo, who
allegedly arranged for sea-borne cocaine shipments from Colombia to
Mexico’s Beltran Leyva cartel.
Also detained in the police raid was U.S. citizen Raul Munoz
Montalvo, of Texas. Police did not release the name of his hometown,
and no one from the U.S. Embassy in Mexico was available to comment.
All the suspects are being held on suspicion of drug trafficking, money laundering and organized-crime activities, Morales said.
Nine Mexicans working as waiters and disk jockeys were briefly held and released.
Authorities had been investigating the group since 2005, the prosecutor said.
The mansion, whose walls, ceilings and furniture are made almost
entirely of ornately carved wood, appeared to have been used by the
traffickers for parties on nights and weekends, authorities said.
It was equipped with a private zoo housing a collection of animals
including two tigers and two lions. Police turned the exotic animals
over to prosecutors. It was unclear what they planned to do with them. (AP)
