’99 arrests upset construction of 2nd drug tunnel, court told
Drug traffickers were working to build a second Naco
October 4, 2001
By Tim Steller
Arizona Daily Star
Drug traffickers were working to build a second Naco tunnel in 1999 when federal agents uncovered the first and arrested those involved, Jose E. Loya testified Wednesday during a trial in U.S. District Court.
Loya, a leader in the cocaine distribution network, said one purpose of the second tunnel would have been to cut out alleged co-conspirator William Dillon, the manager of the first Naco tunnel.
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Dillon, who is a fugitive, had a drug problem that had made him a liability to the organization, Loya testified. The new tunnel was going to be kept secret from Dillon.
“I was responsible and faithful to the organization, made them millions,” Loya said.
Loya’s unprecedented public explanation of the organization’s inner workings came on the 10th day of the trial of two men accused of playing smaller roles in the conspiracy.
Federal prosecutors accuse Richard Valenzuela of storing cocaine loads in a workshop at his house on Tucson’s Southwest Side.
Marcos Dagnino of Bisbee faces charges related to his alleged surveillance of law-enforcement officers during the transportation of the cocaine loads from Naco to Tucson. Valenzuela and Dagnino deny the charges.
Loya, 35, was forced to testify under the terms of his plea agreement, which limited his prison sentence on drug-related charges to 15 years.
He testified Wednesday that the construction of the Naco tunnel began in late 1995 and ended in early 1996. The Juarez drug cartel, then led by Amado Carrillo Fuentes, was the primary user of the tunnel, Loya testified. But Loya said the Tijuana cartel, led by the Arellano Felix brothers, also sent cocaine through the tunnel.
The tunnel was 200 feet long and connected a mobile home in Naco, Ariz., to a walled-in space between two homes across the border fence in Naco, Sonora. The new tunnel that Loya and others were planning was to be about 100 yards east of the original, Loya said.
It was supposed to end in Naco>, Ariz., at a house that Loya had already bought when he was arrested in May 1999, Loya testified.
The abandonment of the old tunnel would not have signaled its first period of disuse. After a 5.6-ton cocaine seizure in Tucson in December 1996, cocaine suppliers stopped using it, Loya testified.
“We had direct orders from the cartel to seal the ends and leave the inner section hollow till further notice,” Loya said.
In 1998, cocaine began moving through the tunnel again.
Loya’s testimony drew a picture of the Juarez cartel as more forgiving than its reputation would hold. After the 5.6-ton seizure, Loya contacted his superior in Mexico, accused co-conspirator Arturo Rascon, who told his contacts in Juarez of the seizure.
Rascon, a fugitive, “told me not to worry, that our load already reached Chicago three weeks before,” Loya said. Later, Loya found out that the seized cocaine had in fact belonged to his organization.
In 1998, Loya and three co-conspirators were arrested near Los Angeles after picking up a $1.5 million cash payment for cocaine already delivered. Loya said his superiors accepted a receipt documenting his stay in the Los Angeles County Jail as proof that the money had been seized by law enforcement, even though it didn’t mention the cash seizure.
“Arturo said that they took it as a loss, but we had to move forward and carry on the next task,” Loya said.
That task, Loya said, was to move 10 tons of cocaine through the tunnel, up to Tucson and on to retail markets.
Closing arguments are set for 9:30 a.m. today before U.S. District Judge John M. Roll.
Contact Tim Steller 434-4086 or at steller@azstarnet.com.
