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September
1999
OPERATIONS
IMPUNITY & MILLENNIUM
Operations
Impunity and Millennium were multi-jurisdictional, multi-agency investigations
that tied drug trafficking activity within the United States to the highest
levels of the international cocaine trade. Operation Impunity was a two-year
operation that was completed in September 1999 and resulted in the arrest
of 93 individuals linked to the Amado Carrillo-Fuentes drug-trafficking
organization headquartered in Juarez, Mexico. Operation Millennium, a
one-year investigation, concluded in October 1999 with the arrest of 31
individuals, including Fabio Ochoa-Vasquez and Alejandro Bernal-Madrigal,
former members of the original Medellin cartel. At the time of their arrest,
they were considered two of the most powerful international traffickers
of cocaine in the world.
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9.5
tons of cocaine were seized from the ocean vessel Xoloescuintle as
part of Operation Millenium. |
The significance
of Operation Impunity was that it dismantled an entire trafficking organization
through the identification and arrest of three major drug-trafficking
cell heads that had been operating inside the United States. The arrests
of these individuals and 90 of their subordinates disabled all facets
of their organization--the group's headquarters in Mexico, the U.S. cell
heads, the drug and money transportation systems, and the local distribution
groups. As a result of Operation Impunity, 12,434 kilos of cocaine and
over 4,800 pounds of marijuana were seized, along with $19 million in
U.S. currency and another $7 million in assets. Operation Millennium effectively
targeted major cocaine suppliers who had been responsible for shipping
vast quantities of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico into the United
States. Operation Millennium specifically targeted drug kingpin Alejandro
Bernal-Madrigal, who, by his own admission, had been smuggling 30 tons,
or 500 million dosage units, of cocaine into the United States every month.
U.S. law enforcement authorites seized more than 13,000 kilograms of cocaine
during the last two weeks of August alone.
Operation Impunity
and Operation Millennium successfully targeted traffickers who had operated
without fear of capture or prosecution in the United States, believing
that only their low-level operatives were at risk. These operations effectively
demonstrated that even the highest level traffickers based in foreign
countries could not conduct drug operations inside the United States with
impunity. The many accomplishments of Operations Impunity and Millennium
were made possible by direct support from the governments of Mexico and
Colombia, in addition to collaborative efforts between the DEA and foreign
law enforcement agencies. These operations underscore the importance of
cooperation among international drug law enforcement agencies.
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