SandBoxBlogs: Pueblo Chieftain "Drug case closes "

Robert Boczkiewicz:
"DENVER — The leader of one of the  world's largest drug-trafficking organizations — toppled due to a tip a decade ago to Pueblo Crime Stoppers — was sentenced Friday to prison for 22 years.
Arriola ran his organization from Mexico, smuggling tons of cocaine monthly from there to a ranch at Peyton in El Paso County that served as a distribution center. Its tentacles stretched to 17 states, including New York, Illinois and Georgia.

A dozen of Arriola's many subordinates lived in Pueblo, agent Paul Roach of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, told The Pueblo Chieftain on Friday. He was the lead investigator.

Investigators previously said Pueblo was among numerous centers in the United States that Arriola's organization used to distribute cocaine and launder the money from it.

Blackburn said the organization garnered $1 billion in revenue and ruined thousands of lives....

......."The most significant international drug trafficking organization ever to operate in the state of Colorado ended with the sentencing of its leader, Oscar Arriola," said Barbra Roach, agent in charge of the DEA's operations in Colorado."  (Read more?  Click title)

The kingpin, Oscar Arriola, was "a clear and present danger to this country and its citizens," U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn said.

"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."