Pair Had $13 Million in Cash and Jewels, Officials Say

In just one bust, Mexican police seized 15 suitcases full of nearly $13 million in U.S. money and jewelry, more than all the loot captured in a much-vaunted joint U.S.-Mexican anti-drug operation that culminated earlier this year, officials say.

Local police in a suburb of the northern city of Monterrey last week responded to reports that a family was “scandalizing” the neighborhood with gunshots and shouting, according to a federal police statement issued Sunday.

The respected El Norte newspaper quoted police sources as saying that the couple living in the house, Jesus Mendivil Ibarra and Olga Gastelum Escobar, were long suspected of having worked as money launderers for the Gulf cartel, one of Mexico’s most notorious drug syndicates.

Federal prosecutors were questioning them in Mexico City on Monday to determine whether charges would be filed.

Just before authorities arrived at the house Thursday in the Monterrey suburb of San Pedro, the family left in two armored vans. Police spotted them speeding away, and a wild chase ensued, including an exchange of gunfire.

Police finally managed to halt the vehicles. The couple and their two sons, ages 14 and 9, were taken into custody.

Then authorities started opening the 15 suitcases and some other containers packed into the vans. The contents, which took all weekend to tally: $6.75 million in U.S. currency and jewelry worth an additional $6 million.

At the scene of the shootout, police also recovered a 9-millimeter pistol and ammunition, some of it spent.

The federal organized-crime unit took over jurisdiction of the case, and the four family members were flown to Mexico City on Saturday, guarded by a phalanx of about 100 police and soldiers when they left the Monterrey airport.

If the 38-year-old Mendivil, who describes himself as a transportation entrepreneur, and his wife, Gastelum, 40, do turn out to be heavyweight drug dealers, it will be another important narcotics bust for the 8-month-old administration of President Vicente Fox.

Police have notched a series of arrests since January, including those of a former governor and other cartel figures.

The Gulf cartel has been hit hard since the arrest of its leader, Juan Garcia Abrego, in January 1996. Garcia Abrego was deported to the United States and is serving a life sentence in Texas.

Alida Bonifaz, the attorney general for Nuevo Leon state, where Monterrey is located, told reporters that the money and jewels were found in 15 suitcases and plastic bags and boxes weighing a total of 374 pounds.

She said it was by far the biggest seizure of allegedly illicit assets in the state. The total also surpassed the $12.5 million confiscated during the vast, 18-month Operation Marquis, mounted jointly by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Mexican authorities in 20 U.S. and Mexican cities, which wrapped up in June.

Bonifaz said no drugs were found in a search of the family’s house. The family members were held initially on suspicion of damage to property during the chase as well as robbery because Mendivil and Gastelum could not explain why they had so much money and jewelry in their possession.

The couple and their 14-year-old son all showed signs of gunpowder residue on their hands, Bonifaz said, indicating that they had fired weapons either in the initial family quarrel or during the shootout with police during the chase.

Mendivil and Gastelum had no previous criminal record, according to Bonifaz. However, newspapers reported that in 1999, the family had a confrontation with police when a guard employed by them slipped out a message saying he was being held hostage in their home. Police raided the house, but found no one, and the family soon after rented another house in a nearby neighborhood.

The couple’s 9-year-old boy was in the care of a social services agency, and the 14-year-old was being held in a youth detention center.