41 cartel suspects indicted

Federal authorities in Atlanta announced grand jury indictments Wednesday against 41 people allegedly connected to violent Mexican drug cartels, including a former deputy sheriff from Texas stopped with nearly $1 million in cash hidden in his pickup on a Georgia highway.

The trafficking operation moved hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and marijuana from the Southwest border to Atlanta, authorities said. It also involved extensive money laundering operations in which millions of dollars in drug proceeds allegedly were funneled through U.S. banks back to Mexico.

Authorities said about $22 million in cash was seized in raids, making it a record amount for an Atlanta case. It comes at a time when the cartels are pushing hard to solidify a hold on the Southeastern U.S. and other metropolitan areas far north of the Rio Grande.

“Drug trafficking is all about money,” said Reginael D. McDaniel, special agent in charge of the IRS criminal investigation division. “Seizing the dirty cash and the assets of these illegal organizations hits criminals where it hurts the most. It deprives them of their profits.”

One of the more significant arrests was of Emmanuel Sanchez, a deputy sheriff from Hidalgo County, Texas. He was stopped in January 2007 by a Georgia state trooper while driving on Interstate 20. Dressed in plainclothes, he was transporting a large amount of heavy equipment in his pickup. He showed the trooper his deputy sheriff’s badge once he was pulled over, officials said.

But after inspecting the truck, authorities said, they found $950,000 in cash hidden in the door and in a duffel bag on the back seat. Sanchez told them he had found the cash in a bag behind a trash bin at a Hooters restaurant, Georgia State Patrol spokesman Larry Schnall said in a published report.

Sanchez, whom the cartel operatives reportedly dubbed “Sheriff,” resigned from his post before the indictment was filed Sept. 2 and unsealed Wednesday in Atlanta.

In another traffic stop last year in Georgia, officials found more than $13 million in drug cash in a secret compartment under the floor of a livestock truck. The indictment identified the suspects in that incident as Jesus Flores Sr. and Jesus Flores Jr.

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richard.serrano@latimes.com