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Lions caught in Mexican narcotics dealer's den
Mexican authorities said on Sunday they had arrested more than a dozen members of an alleged drug-trafficking ring in an upscale neighbourhood of the capital city, seizing weapons, vehicles - and lions.
- Agencies
- Published: 00:55 October 21, 2008
Mexico City: Mexican authorities said on Sunday they had arrested more than a dozen members of an alleged drug-trafficking ring in an upscale neighbourhood of the capital city, seizing weapons, vehicles - and lions.
Eleven Colombians, a US citizen, two Mexicans and an Uruguayan were detained during a raid in a sprawling mansion in Desierto de los Leones on Saturday, organised-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 US citizen Raul Munoz Montalvo, of Texas. Police did not reveal his hometown, and no one from the US Embassy in Mexico was available to comment.
The suspects are being held on suspicion of drug trafficking, money laundering and organised-criminal 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.
"This is important, because it breaks a logistic link in the chain that supplies Mexican cartels with cocaine," she 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.
Those who received invitations were picked up at nearby shopping-centre parking lots in vehicles with blacked-out windows to prevent them from seeing where they were going.
The mansion 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.
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