Feds: U.S. Marine veteran built cocaine pipeline as Mexican drug kingpin

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  La Opinion and San Diego Tribune

Ángel Domínguez Ramírez Jr., "El Zeta 39", conducted  "business" with the Jalisco Nueva Generación, Sinaloa, del Golfo, Los Zetas and Los Beltrán Leyva cartels. He founded “El Seguimiento 39”, The US Attorney's Office accused Ángel Domínguez Ramírez Jr. of using his military training as an ex-marine to work as a member of the Los Zetas paramilitary cartel …

Mexican Navy officers stand guard next to a helicopter loaded with seized bags of cocaine in this 2018 file photo. A Marine Corps veteran with dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico has been accused of running a massive cocaine smuggling operation

The following is from an article posted 11 months ago, which gives the backstory of Dominguez, the Zeta and founder of “El Seguimiento 39” related to my  previous post.

A U.S. Marine veteran who rose to power as a reputed Mexican drug kingpin has been named in a massive cocaine trafficking indictment in San Diego.

The investigation into Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr.’s organization revealed “an unprecedented level of corruption within the Mexican government, local police departments, federal police agencies and military,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a recent court filing.

More than 41 people have been charged in the case, which has yielded 5,000 kilograms of seized cocaine and more than $9 million in drug proceeds.

Dominguez’s organization sourced cocaine from Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, up through Central America and into Chiapas, Mexico, according to prosecutors. Transportation cells would move the cocaine into Mexico using boats, aircraft and commercial vehicles, then through the California and Texas borders for distribution into the United States, according to the court filing.

The organization also used a reverse pipeline moving drug proceeds from the U.S. back south, according to the indictment that was partially unsealed this week.

Dominguez was arrested in Mexico in 2016.

He is a dual U.S. citizen who served as a Marine, prosecutors said. According to his U.S. passport application, he walks with a limp due to a combat-related injury.

He is accused of using his military training as an original member of the Los Zetas paramilitary cartel, which was first formed as an enforcement wing for the Cartel del Golfo. He was known as “Zeta 39,” prosecutors said, no doubt informing the name of his current organization, “El Seguimiento 39.”

Prosecutors say he built his organization through cooperative alliances with the Beltran Leyva Organization, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Cartel del Golfo and the Los Zetas.

He also called upon corrupt government officials, authorities said.

Those corrupt relationships were on full display in 2017, when Ivan Reyes Arzate was taken down in Chicago.

Reyes was a top federal police commander and the highest-ranking member of Mexico’s Sensitive Investigation Unit. He served as a liaison with U.S. law enforcement officials, privy to sensitive information about some of the most important U.S. investigations into drug cartels.

Turns out, Reyes was leaking the information to the cartels.

The first hint came when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago asked Reyes’ unit to conduct surveillance of a meeting of traffickers in Cancun. Wiretapped communications then revealed that someone named “Ayala” — later determined to be Reyes — warned one of the traffickers about the investigation and suggested he lay low.

“You were the target,” Reyes warned.

Scrutiny turned to Reyes as the mole when U.S. agents intercepted a call between Dominguez and another trafficker.

“Who is Ivan?” Dominguez asked, according to prosecutors.

“The boss,” the other trafficker said.

Dominguez began to rely heavily on Reyes for information about the overlapping San Diego-Chicago DEA investigation.

At one point, Reyes admitted to meeting with Dominguez in Mexico City. Dominguez had proposed a plan: that he supply the federal police with incriminating information against the current plaza bosses in the Gulf state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Once they were arrested, Dominguez could replace them with less violent bosses.

Reyes’ leak in the investigation prompted one confidential DEA informant — who had been paid more than $1 million for cooperating — to be evacuated from Mexico for safety.

Years earlier, when Reyes had worked for the Beltran Leyva cartel, he revealed another cooperator’s identity, resulting in the cooperator’s torture and death at the hands of cartel assassins, authorities said.

Dominguez and another unnamed co-conspirator knew of Reyes’ prior relationship with the Beltran Leyva group and threatened to use it as leverage against the official if they needed to, according to intercepted communications.

Reyes turned himself in to authorities in Chicago in February 2017 and in November was sentenced to 40 months in prison.

As for the Dominguez prosecution, several co-defendants have been already been arrested — beginning in July 2017 — and many have pleaded guilty.

The complaint against Reyes in Chicago had acknowledged that an indictment had been filed against Dominguez in San Diego, but noted it was sealed. On Monday, his name was finally unsealed along with the names of eight others. The names of more than 25 people charged in the case remain sealed.

 Indictments 2019 

Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr ... by Chivis Martinez on Scribd