The Drug Enforcement Administration today announced the results of Project Below the Beltway, a two-year series of investigations targeting the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels and violent street gangs as part of on-going initiative against the cartels and their distribution networks in the United States.

Results include 3,780 arrests, and the seizure of 6,100 kilograms of cocaine, 10,284 pounds methamphetamine, 1,619 pounds of heroin, 349,304 pounds of marijuana, $148 million dollars in U.S. currency, and $38 million dollars in other assets.

Officials said the project included investigations in 79 U.S. cities and several foreign cities in Central America, Europe, Mexico, South America and elsewhere.

Project Below the Beltway also consisted of state and local investigations that targeted the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels and associated trafficking organizations.

The Sinaloa and Juárez cartels are responsible for bringing multi-ton quantities of narcotics, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana from Mexico into the United States.

These cartels are also believed to be responsible for laundering millions of dollars in criminal proceeds from illegal drug trafficking activities. Individuals indicted in the cases are charged with a variety of crimes, including: various felony provisions of the Controlled Substances Act; conspiracy to import controlled substances; money laundering; firearms violations and other related offenses.


"We've orchestrated a sustained wave of coordinated, aggressive enforcement actions to weaken these cartels and their violent gang associates," DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart said. "These international organized crime regimes operate without borders and our ongoing investigations in the U.S. and overseas will continue to target its members wherever they operate. Project Below the Beltway would not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of our local, federal and international partners."

The two cartels are considered responsible for unprecedented numbers of homicides since 2008 in Juárez.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at;m 546-6140.