Cartel trafficking ring funneled tons of cocaine from RGV to Houston, prosecutors say

McALLEN — Armando “Baldy” Arambul led a massive drug trafficking operation that funneled hundreds of pounds of cocaine through the Rio Grande Valley to Houston on a weekly basis, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Arambul, 36, also known as “Pelon” and “Mando,” stood beside Richardo “Ricky” Vega in U.S. District Court in McAllen for a detention hearing Wednesday.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Dorina Ramos ordered both men to remain in federal custody until their next court date, a pretrial hearing set for July.

An indictment unsealed May 11 accuses the men of conspiring to possess and distribute more than 5 kilograms — 11 pounds — of cocaine as well as laundering the cash to hide their drug trafficking operation.

Sources familiar with the men say they had a direct connection to the Gulf Cartel, gradually moving larger and larger loads of cocaine to Houston, traditionally a hub for smuggled narcotics before moving further north and east. 

In court Wednesday, prosecutors said the men moved more than 400 pounds of cocaine — roughly $12.8 million worth — each week for several years. Most loads sent up north went in 40- to 100-pound loads and occasionally were discovered by U.S. Border Patrol agents at checkpoints north of the Valley.

Agents first learned of Arambul and Vega, 28, while tapping a phone conversation in August 2009, said Luis Alaniz, a Cameron County District Attorney’s Office investigator assigned to the Drug Enforcement Administration task force.

Agents worked with unnamed informants also facing federal charges who leaked information about the operation, Alaniz said.

The millions of dollars flowing south from the bulk cocaine sales pushed Arambul and Vega to funnel their proceeds into property and luxury cars. Still, investigators also tracked some $5 million in cash belonging to the men, the indictment states.

Alaniz testified Arambul’s home in Cameron Park appeared to belong to someone “living beyond their means,” in a colonia with surveillance cameras and high fences.

Nearly 6,000 residents live in Cameron Park, the poorest census-designated place of its size in the United States, according to the 2000 census.

Law enforcement attempted to monitor Arambul’s home in Cameron Park regularly over the past year, but saw little criminal activity, Alaniz said. A neighbor submitted a photo of a person holding a grenade launcher standing on the property, but agents recovered no weapons during a raid of the house on May 11.  

“The Cameron Park area for law enforcement is very difficult to surveil, so we didn’t see anything” at the house, Alaniz testified.

Arambul faces a mandatory life prison sentence on the drug charge, due to two prior narcotics convictions, prosecutors said.

If convicted, the men would have to forfeit five properties in the Cameron Park area, as well as the $5 million, the indictment states.

As he stepped from the federal courthouse in McAllen after Wednesday’s hearing, Arambul’s lawyer, Dale Robertson, maintained his client’s innocence.

“We are certainly fighting these charges,” Robertson said. “He’s innocent.”

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Monitor staff writer Ildefonso Ortiz contributed to this report.

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Jared Taylor covers courts and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.