Local, state and federal authorities on Friday arrested 25 people accused of supplying the Tulsa area with more than 260 pounds of Mexican methamphetamine for more than four years.
About 125 officers with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, the Tulsa Police Department, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office and the U.S. Marshal Service left from the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs' Tulsa office with 50 warrants in hand at 5 a.m. Friday.
By 9:30 a.m., nearly half of those warrants had been served and the OBNDD said it was well on its way to effectively shutting down a trafficking ring responsible for bringing up to 20 pounds of crystal meth a week to northeastern Oklahoma.
OBNDD spokesman Mark Woodward said that by late Friday afternoon, 31 people had been placed in custody - including six individuals who had been previously apprehended - in connection with the investigation. He said efforts would be made in coming days to execute the remainder of the arrest warrants.
Said OBNDD Director Darrell Weaver: "Today, with the cooperation of federal, county and local law enforcement, we dismantled a group of violators responsible for supplying multiple pounds of meth in Tulsa.
"I applaud brave law enforcement for putting their lives on the line every day to combat these ones that are bent on destroying Oklahoma lives while pocketing their seedy profits."
Two teams - an eight-person search warrant team and an eight-person arrest warrant team - set out for the 10100 block of East Fourth Place with news reporters and legislators in tow.
Officers glided into the neighborhood and set up methodically around 39-year-old Jorge Hernandez's house. They shouted, "Tulsa police! Policia!" while pounding their fists on the home's front door.
Glass shattered behind a battering ram, and moments later the residence's occupants, including a small child, were led out in a line.
The arresting officers took Hernandez back to the OBNDD office in Tulsa to be processed. The group serving the search warrant stayed behind to search for drugs, guns, cash and evidence of wire transfers or other financial transactions.
The arrest warrant team moved quickly to two more houses within an hour, netting another arrest and picking up a lead on another fugitive's whereabouts.
"We don't want the cartels to think Oklahoma is a safe place" for trafficking drugs, Woodward said.
He described Oklahoma as "prime real estate" for drug cartels because of its proximity to the Mexican border and easy interstate access.
Meth use is prevalent in Oklahoma - as in other parts of the Midwest and West Coast - because it's easy to get and cheap to make, among other factors, he said.
Meth is inevitably followed by violence, Weaver said at a Friday morning press conference.
"It has such a collateral effect," he said. "Methamphetamine is such a hideous drug in our society and to our state. As I've said, it's probably done more damage than anything in the history of our state."
Crystal meth, or ice, from Mexico is commonly smoked from a pipe. Meth produced locally is made into a powder that users inject.
The 47 arrest warrants and three search warrants served Friday target key crystal meth distributors in Tulsa, Wagoner, Claremore and elsewhere.
"It's going to send a message back to Mexico," Woodward said.
At the press conference, U.S. Attorney Danny Williams Sr. and Tulsa County District Attorney Tim Harris pledged their support to the effort, and Tulsa Police Chief Chuck Jordan warned meth traffickers of more crackdowns to come.
"This is not a flash in the pan," Jordan said. "... This is going to continue. You're going to see this again."
On Friday afternoon, a federal indictment was unsealed in Tulsa in which eight people are charged with conspiring to distribute the drug from June 2008 until Feb. 15 of this year.
Federal prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of at least $4 million from the eight defendants, four of whom made initial court appearances Friday afternoon. The money is meant to represent suspected proceeds purportedly obtained as a result of the alleged conspiracy.
"It's big-time business," Williams said. "These people are going to protect their business, and they don't mind (doing so) by killing. So we've determined that we've got to be as aggressive as they are at making the money at putting them off the streets."
Tulsa County prosecutors also filed seven felony trafficking cases naming 38 defendants.
World Staff Writer David Harper contributed to this report.
By the numbers
25 - Number of people arrested
47 - Arrest warrants issued
3 - Search warrants issued
9 - Federal indictments unsealed
7 - Oklahoma felony cases
8 - Months spent investigating targeted trafficking ring
125 - Law enforcement officers participating in OBNDD warrant sweep
$1,300 - Average price of 1 ounce of crystal meth sold by targeted trafficking ring
260 pounds - Amount of crystal meth sold in Oklahoma by targeted ring over four years
Amanda Bland 918-581-8413
amanda.bland@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Meth raids nab 25
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