Convicted drug leader wants his bling back

01:29 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Associated Press

McALLEN, Texas—Convicted Gulf Cartel captain Carlos Landin Martinez wants his bling back.

But the federal government says Landin bought the jewel-encrusted pendant of the patron saint of lost causes with drug money and so it’s theirs.

Neither side will budge, so it’ll be up to a South Texas jury to decide the case named United States of America vs. Two Pieces of Jewelry.

The pendant of the patron St. Jude—which he was wearing when he was nabbed by a federal agent—is 10 karats of gold studded with 128 diamonds, 36 emeralds and one ruby, hanging from a 24-inch 14-karat gold chain, valued at $12,400.

The portly middle-aged Landin, inexplicably nicknamed “el Puma,” was convicted on drug trafficking charges for collecting “pisos,” or taxes, from drug traffickers who wanted to use valuable smuggling routes controlled by the Gulf Cartel. They said Landin, a retired Tamaulipas state police investigator, was the Gulf Cartel’s No. 2 man in Reynosa, Mexico.