The wooden frames and plaques display maps of Honduras and the country’s flag, like kitschy souvenirs a tourist might pick up.
But they serve quite a different purpose: Over the past six years, authorities say, those frames have been used to smuggle massive amounts of cocaine from Honduras into Northern Virginia.
Twenty-eight people have been arrested in what prosecutors say is a cocaine-trafficking ring that has distributed the drug throughout the D.C. and mid-Atlantic regions since 2006. Ring members have wired more than $1 million to their cocaine suppliers in Honduras during that time, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court in Alexandria and unsealed Thursday.
| Tale of the texts |
| Documents say agents intercepted “thousands” of cellphone communications during the investigation. But some of the defendants apparently weren’t aware that could happen. The following, authorities say, is from a text message conversation between Melcy Yalexsy Guevara-Barrera and Genis Jhesson Amaya-Pena: |
| Amaya-Pena: “Easy fool, what if they are reading our texts?” |
| Guevara-Barrera: “The texts are the only thing they cannot read, fool.” |
| Amaya-Pena: “Keep thinking that they can’t read them. That’s the most reliable evidence they can present.” |
Court documents don’t give a total amount of drugs the trafficking operation is suspected of having distributed, but there are indications it was significant.
In a recorded conversation, authorities say, Samuel Benitez-Pineda bragged about recently obtained cocaine.
“We have enough coke to bathe in it,” he said.
The 146-page complaint, which includes information from informants, statements from the defendants and intercepted cellphone and text message conversations, details the traffickers placing orders, arranging to meet couriers and making transactions.
It’s one of the largest and longest-running drug conspiracies prosecuted in the area, said Peter Carr, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Couriers from Honduras would smuggle up to several pounds of drugs in one trip, hiding the cocaine “within seemingly innocuous items,” like the decorative wooden frames or shoes, FBI Special Agent Glenn Mai wrote in the complaint. The Virginia-based traffickers would distribute the cocaine to other dealers, who would then resell the drugs, the complaint says. Ring members sent proceeds back to Honduras via wire transfer.
The arrested individuals include those who worked directly with the Honduran suppliers and others who worked as D.C.-area distributors, authorities say.
The complaint says “many conspirators living in the United States are illegal aliens.” Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Dani Bennett said ICE had not lodged detainers against any defendant as of Thursday, but the agency was still going through their information.
The conspiracy was uncovered after an informant approached Fairfax County police in July 2011 about concern over cocaine sales in the informant’s neighborhood.
Later, investigators linked past criminal actions connected to the conspiracy, such as an October 2006 arrest at Washington Dulles International Airport of a woman who was carrying 25 pairs of cocaine-filled cowboy boots.
