Federal, state and local law enforcement officials have busted a large drug trafficking organization that was bringing methamphetamine and cocaine into Washington from Mexico and operating in parts of Pierce County.

It was the second trafficking organization dismantled in the Puget Sound region by federal and local authorities in less than two years.

Law enforcement authorities have focused increasingly on the cartels as state laws clamped down on the ability of meth users to cook batches of the drug.

“Unfortunately none of those controls are in Mexico,” said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Investigations in Seattle. “Our biggest threat for meth is coming out of Mexico.”

On Thursday, federal officials announced they had made 31 arrests and seized $60,000 in cash, 22 vehicles and nearly two dozen firearms as part of the 14-month investigation, nicknamed “Operation Arctic Chill,” into the Oseguera-Chavez drug trafficking organization. Several of the guns had been reported stolen.

The investigation was carried out by agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Drug Enforcement Administration and 14 state and local law enforcement agencies.

Eight of those arrested lived in Pierce County and carried out some of their transactions in the county, federal authorities said. Arrested were the alleged leader of the organization and several others suspected of buying and selling the drugs.

Federal drug charges have been filed against 23 of those arrested.

Law enforcement officials executed more than 35 search warrants over the past two weeks. In Washington state, the warrants were served in Carnation, Federal Way, Lynnwood, Olympia, Puyallup, Rainier, Roy, Tacoma, Vancouver and Yelm.

The investigation began in April 2008, when federal authorities received information that a man was willing to sell large quantities of meth from his store on Pacific Avenue South in Spanaway.

Over the next several months, investigators learned the traffickers were buying meth and cocaine from dealers in California and Mexico and then distributing the drugs using other members of the organization.

The drugs were moved along the Interstate 5 corridor in hidden compartments of vehicles, federal authorities said.

“Members ... sought to conceal their actions, speaking with each other in coded language to describe the drugs, calling crystal methamphetamine ‘clothes’ or ‘blind man’ and referring to poor quality drugs as ‘stretched’ or ‘bruised,’ ” according to an ICE statement.

In April 2008, federal and local authorities announced they’d busted members of a Mexico-based crime family operating in Western Washington. About 300 federal agents and local law enforcement officers arrested 41 members of the Barragan drug trafficking organization and executed warrants in four counties.

They seized 89 pounds of meth, 50 guns and $255,000 in cash during a 14-month investigation.

Stacey Mulick: 253-597-8268

stacey.mulick@thenewstribune.com

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