US nabs 45 linked to Mexico drug cartel

WASHINGTON: US agents have arrested 45 people in Atlanta, Georgia, suspected of being part of a violent Mexican drug cartel known as "La Familia," officials said Thursday.

The arrests stem from an investigation that began in May 2009 known as Operation Choke Hold, said Douglas Kahn, a spokesman for the Atlanta office of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"We have worked with our federal, state and local counterparts to target and dismantle a major Mexican criminal enterprise that has distributed hundreds of pounds of illegal drugs into our local communities and who have collected millions of dollars of drug proceeds," said a DEA statement.

The statement said that La Familia controls drug manufacturing and distribution in and around the Mexican state of Michoacan and supplies "vast quantities of cocaine and methamphetamine" to the United States.

"La Familia is a heavily armed cartel that has utilized violence to support its narcotics trafficking business including murders, kidnappings and assaults," the statement added.

As part of the operation, agents seized 46 pounds (21 kilos) of methamphetamine plus a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory, 43 kilograms (95 pounds) of cocaine, 4,120 pounds (1,800 kilos) of marijuana, 20 firearms, and more than 2.3 million dollars in US currency.