The 12-month Operation Kruz Control targeted the Luis Armando Cruz drug trafficking organisation, identified since October 2012 as a Phoenix-based transportation cell working for Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel.[1][2] Cruz coordinated multi-thousand-pound marijuana shipments from Mexico, primarily through the Agua Prieta corridor, into New Mexico and Arizona, using load drivers and backpackers in the desert near San Simon and Willcox for delivery onward to Tucson and Phoenix, while bulk drug proceeds were smuggled back into Mexico.[1]
A federal grand jury in Phoenix returned a seven-count indictment against Cruz and ten other members on 11 December 2013, and on 13 December federal, state and local officers executed simultaneous arrest and search warrants on the organisation’s members and stash houses in Phoenix and Willcox.[1][2] Eleven of thirteen suspects were arrested, and officers seized 1,400 pounds (about 635 kg) of marijuana along with seven rifles, two handguns, a shotgun, two homes, nine vehicles, an all-terrain quad and a bank account.[1][2] The operation had already yielded $200,000 in currency and 6,500 pounds of marijuana, and investigators linked seizures totalling over 27,000 pounds to the network since December 2012; all eleven defendants were arraigned on 16 December and remanded to the United States Marshals.[1]
