Commander Found Guilty in Cartel Case

Wednesday, January 23, 2008 - 09:29 PM
By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
Associated Press Writer

McALLEN, Texas

A former Mexican police commander was convicted Wednesday of helping run the notorious Gulf cartel´s drug smuggling operation.

Carlos Landin Martinez was found guilty of nine counts including drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering over alleged cartel activities from 2005 to 2007.

Prosecutors said Landin oversaw an operation in which traffickers wanting to use lucrative smuggling routes across the border into South Texas had to pay Landin a "piso," or tax, to move drugs in cartel territory. Landin was the Gulf cartel´s second-in-command in Reynosa, a Mexican city south of McAllen, prosecutors say.

Drugs came across on people, on rafts and through a tunnel that opened up through a manhole in Hidalgo, Texas, among other means, according to investigators. The proceeds from drug sales all over the United States were then smuggled back into Mexico, authorities said.