How Marine veteran with dual US-Mexico citizenship ‘used his military training as cartel enforcer and became kingpin of massive cocaine operation’
Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr is the accused kingpin in a massive drug operation
Feds say he ran pipeline of drugs from South America into the US
Marine vet is accused of using military training while working with cartels
Dominguez is being held in Mexico awaiting extradition to America
By KEITH GRIFFITH
DAILYMAIL.COM
2 March 2019
A Marine Corps veteran with dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico has been accused of running a massive cocaine smuggling operation.
Angel Dominguez Ramirez Jr was named in an indictment unsealed on Monday as the kingpin of a pipeline that moved illicit drugs from South America across the border into California and Texas.
The bust resulted in the arrest of 41 people as well as the seizure of 5,000 kilograms of coke and more than $9million cash.
The investigation uncovered ‘an unprecedented level of corruption within the Mexican government, local police departments, federal police agencies and military,’ the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a recent court filing reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Dominguez was arrested in Mexico in 2016 and is being held there awaiting extradition to the U.S.
Prosecutors say he used his training as a U.S. Marine as one of the original enforcers for Los Zetas, the paramilitary cartel.
He was known as ‘Zeta 39,’ a moniker that apparently carried over to the name of his current organization, ‘El Seguimiento 39.’
Prosecutors say that Dominguez forged alliances with some of the most dangerous criminal groups in Mexico, including the Beltran Leyva Organization, the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion, the Sinaloa Cartel, the Cartel del Golfo and his former gang, Los Zetas.
Dominguez is also accused of working with corrupt officials at the highest levels, including Ivan Reyes Arzate, a top federal police commander and the highest-ranking member of Mexico’s Sensitive Investigation Unit.
Reyes was taken down in 2017 for leaking investigative information to cartels, and is currently serving 40 months in U.S. federal prison.
After his arrest, Reyes admitted to meeting with Dominguez in Mexico City.
Prosecutors say that Dominguez offered to cut a deal with federal police and help them take down certain cartel bosses, to be replaced by Dominguez’s proteges, whom he vowed would be less violent.
Eight other names were unsealed along with Dominguez’s on Monday. The names of 25 individuals charged in the case remain under seal.
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