Chapos Meth Maker "El Viejito" apprehended

Mexican officials say they've arrested a man who manufactured methamphetamine for the Sinaloa drug cartel run by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. It's the latest in a series of arrests of associates of Guzman, the most wanted man in Mexico.

Federal police say in a statement that 43-year-old Jaime Herrera Herrera was captured in the Pacific coast state of Sinaloa and was one of the principal producers of methamphetamine for Guzman's cartel. They say he is wanted by authorities in the United States, and has acknowledged moving tons of methamphetamine into the United States.  AP

Federal police agents present Jaime Herrera, alias "El Viejito," alleged member of the Pacific drug cartel, to the press in Mexico City, Tuesday Feb. 14, 2012. Herrera is considered to be one of the most important producers and distributors of synthetic drugs, according to authorities. (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)

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UPDATE

The following is from the DEA historical archives, it describe the long history of this organization

Jaime Herrera Organization

The following information is in the DEA Historical website for the years to 1990.  From the information one can see the long drug lineage this family has.

Jaime Herrera-Nevares

Jaime Herrera-Nevares was the patriarch of a huge criminal syndicate based in the mountain top village of Los Herreras, Durango, Mexico. As far back as 1957, the Herrera organization ran a farm-to-the-arm heroin operation that cultivated opium poppy plants, processed and packaged heroin in Mexico, and transported it to Chicago. There it was either sold locally or distributed to other U.S. cities. This group was extremely difficult to penetrate because family members controlled the entire heroin process from top to bottom.

(While criminal syndicates such as the Jaime Herrera organization were trafficking heroin into the United States, cocaine trafficking was also a major problem facing law enforcement officials.

In September 1977, DEA agents at JFK Airport in New York seized 85 pounds of cocaine that had been concealed in 4,500 pounds of chocolate bars. Special Agent Michael J. Tobin displayed how the cocaine had been hidden in the candy bars.

U.S. law enforcement agencies were well acquainted with the Herrera organization and its "Heroin Highway," a drug trafficking network that stretched from Durango to Chicago. The family frequently smuggled heroin in their invention, the "Durango drive-shaft," a sleeve-like device that surrounded the vehicle's drive-shaft and held several kilos of heroin. They also used compartmentalized gas tanks and door panels to conceal the contraband.

At one time, Chicago area law enforcement agencies believed the Herreras controlled as much as 90% of local heroin distribution. The DEA estimated that the Herrera organization imported 746 pounds of pure heroin into the United States each year. When cut, this amounted to over eight tons of five-percent pure heroin.

The Herreras were considered the largest heroin trafficking organization in Mexico, with profits estimated at $1 million a year. They returned the majority of their profits to their home in Mexico, using neighborhood currency exchanges to send money orders back to Durango. In the mid-1970s, the DEA traced just under $2 million from these exchanges and Western Union records. This figure represented approximately one percent of the total cash transferred to Mexico by the Herrera organization annually.

By 1978, the Chicago Herreras were grossing $60 million a year and had established branches in Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, and Pittsburgh. By 1980, the family had established connections in South America and had diversified into cocaine. By the mid-1980s, the family's gross income had reached approximately $200 million a year.

CENTAC 19, launched in 1979, targeted the Herrera family trafficking organization and eventually resulted in the seizure of 39 kilograms of heroin, as well as the arrest and long-term incarceration of three key Chicago-based members of the Herrera organization.

During the 1980s investigations against the Herreras continued. On July 23, 1985, as a result of a two-year investigation called Operation Durango, between 450 and 500 federal, state, and local law enforcement officers in Chicago, Illinois, and Gary, Indiana, arrested 120 traffickers (of the 132 indicted) connected to the polydrug trafficking Herrera and Zambrana families. Officers seized 10 pounds of heroin, 13 pounds of cocaine, 47 properties, and $300,000. In August 1988, the Mexican leaders of the organization, Jaime Herrera-Nevarez, Sr., and Jaime Herrera-Herrera, Jr., were arrested in Mexico on drug charges and remain incarcerated in Mexico City. They continued being listed as DEA fugitives based on prior indictments in Miami, Florida.

And This UPDATE from Mexico-Translated by Havana:

MEXICO CITY (14/FEB/2012.) - The Federal Police arrested in Culiacan, Sinaloa, Jaime Herrera Herrera, alias 'JH' or 'El Viejito', accused of being one of the leading producers of methamphetamine in the service of Sinaloa cartel, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada.

 At a press conference to present the person, the head of la División Antidrogas de la corporación, Ramón Eduardo Pequeño,, said Herrera Herrera was also in wanted by United States authorities for carrying several tons of methamphetamine in the 90's

.The arrest of the alleged drug dealer, he said, is a major blow against the Pacific Cartel, because 'Ice' is a drug with increasing consumption and highly addictive. The command of the Federal Police revealed that the kilogram of the psychotropic drug, known as 'Ice', is priced at the start of production of $ 10 000 per kilogram and its value increases as it moves to America.

 He announced Jaime Herrera used two ranches located just outside Culiacan for production of this drug, where he performed the chemical processes for the production of methamphetamine, whose components are mostly legal. According to the background the 'JH' was arrested in the 90's in the United States and after obtaining bail fled the country, said the federal official. He explained that Herrera Herrera's criminal activity began in 1996 as a synthetic drug dealer in Los Angeles, California, United States, and in 1997 began as a producer of drugs in Culiacan, until 1999.

Ramón Eduardo Pequeño said it is known that the detainee had differences with the cartel of the Arellano Felix in 2001 for having used the the transfer route of Tijuana Cartel, so to solve the problem he had to work for that organization for a year.

Then he made alliance with the Pacific Cartel, from a meeting held at the request of ' El Mayo' Zambada, also Javier Torres Felix alias' JT 'and Alfredo Beltran Leyva alias' 'Mochomo'. Among his criminal activities 'El Viejito' had contacts with Colombian drug traffickers to smuggle cocaine, while supplying the precursor chemicals from Chile and Guatemala.

In 2008 Jaime Herrera had three aircraft in Baja ,California for transporting synthetic drugs and marijuana across the border. With the suspected drug trafficker was arrested Felipe Naranjo Seville, who apparently was responsible for chemical input costs and paying the salaries of the workers who produced the 'Ice'. also he said a rifle, a handgun, two vehicles, communications equipment, three drug packages weighing nearly a pound each, and 174 packages with about 202 kg of methamphetamine were secured. According to Eduardo Pequeño, the amount of the drug to be introduced would reach more than two million dollars at the beginning of the chain of illegal sale.

 Those arrested, drugs, weapons and other items will be made available to the Federal Public Ministry, so that begin investigations.