{"id":281,"date":"2022-12-20T14:28:54","date_gmt":"2022-12-20T14:28:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/?p=281"},"modified":"2024-03-16T12:46:13","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T12:46:13","slug":"a-dea-agent-tracked-the-source-of-fentanyl-in-mormon-country-a-mexican-cartel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/?p=281","title":{"rendered":"A DEA agent tracked the source of fentanyl in Mormon country \u2014 a Mexican cartel<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kevin Sieff<\/a> Dec. 13 at 6:10 a.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ST. GEORGE, Utah \u2014 The meth was expensive. The federal agents were running out of money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They had been buying loads of drugs in undercover operations, trying to trace the pipeline of methamphetamine and fentanyl into this sleepy city of retirees, out-of-town hikers and Mormon churches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brady Wilson, one of just two Drug Enforcement Administration agents in southern Utah, begged his bosses for more cash. The case felt big \u2014 a window into how Mexican organized crime had penetrated even suburban America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a gut feeling,\u201d Wilson said. A Mexican cartel, he suspected, had set up shop in St. George.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson, a bald, trim 42-year-old, operated out of an unmarked building, across the street from a car wash. He looked around St. George, a city of about 100,000 surrounded by jagged red-rock cliffs and waves of cookie-cutter suburbs. Few places in America would make a more incongruous outpost for Mexican drug traffickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brady Wilson, a former Drug Enforcement Administration agent, looks out over the valley in St. George. (Ronda Churchill for The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet synthetic drugs had arrived here much as they had in other small cities and rural areas across the United States \u2014 abruptly and with immediate, devastating impact. In Utah, fentanyl overdose deaths had increased 300 percent over a three-year period, killing 170 people in 2021, according to the state health department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexican criminal groups had become experts in producing fentanyl and meth across the border. Now, Wilson knew, they were honing their role in retail distribution in the United States, where synthetics had reshaped the geography of drug demand. There was money to be made in places like St. George.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early 2020, Wilson got his first tip. Someone walked up to the FBI field office in St. George with a claim that appeared to leap from Wilson\u2019s subconscious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe message was: \u2018You\u2019ve got a major player in your area who has significant ties to Mexico.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the informant, a Mexican man was running a drug distribution ring from a small ranch on the edge of St. George. Wilson and other federal law enforcement officials launched an investigation. They were about to learn how deeply Mexican cartels have penetrated the heartland of America. What follows is based on court documents and information Wilson and several other federal officials shared with The Washington Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first, the work was tedious. They conducted stakeouts in strip-mall parking lots. They interviewed detained drug dealers. They weren\u2019t getting enough evidence to advance the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 2021, the agents made a breakthrough. They traced a shipment of drugs to \u00c1ngel Rubio Quintana, a 41-year-old from Michoac\u00e1n, Mexico. Deported years earlier, he had returned to southern Utah, where his relatives had a popular fast-food restaurant known for its burritos and carne asada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Washington Post followed the fentanyl epidemic from Mexican labs to U.S. streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was a short, chubby man with a goatee. He shepherded his four children around St. George in a used SUV. They posed for photos in front of the mall; in front of their Christmas tree; in front of a flower shop, wearing matching plaid shirts. The agents didn\u2019t need to work hard to get his contact information. Rubio sold used cars in front of his in-laws\u2019 Mexican restaurant, scrawling his phone number on the windshields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When agents found out where Rubio was living, Wilson shook his head in disbelief. The man suspected of importing drugs into St. George had moved his family into one of the city\u2019s immaculate suburbs, on a street lined with American flags and pickups. It wasn\u2019t far from Wilson\u2019s own home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Wilson needed to learn was how Rubio ran the operation. Could agents build a strong enough case against him to cast a net over the entire trafficking ring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evidence trickled in. The first time agents purchased a large load of meth from Rubio, they said, it arrived in a five-pound tub of sour cream called La Crema Mexicana. The agents wondered whether there was a connection between the extended family\u2019s restaurant and Rubio\u2019s drug trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tub solved one of Wilson\u2019s problems \u2014 what to call the investigation: Operation Sour Cream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A view of St. George that includes its Mormon temple. (Salwan Georges\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a young DEA agent, Wilson had studied the architecture of America\u2019s drug war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Drug trafficking routes through Mexico, he learned, are the product of years of turf wars, shifting alliances and continually refinedsmuggling techniques. Nearly a century after early opium smugglers lugged their loads across the Rio Grande, Mexico has been carved into criminal fiefdoms. Different cartels own different stretches of the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Sinaloa cartel<\/a> has risen to become the world\u2019s premier fentanyl producer. The group manufactures fentanyl and meth throughout northwestern Mexico, in labs that span the mountains of Culiac\u00e1n and dot the residential streets of downtown Tijuana. Those drugs are loaded into hidden compartments in cars and trucks and sent across the border into California and Arizona.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What happens once those drugs enter the United States \u2014 the pipeline from the border to the user \u2014 has been less clear. How involved are cartels in the distribution and sale of their own products? Historically, most dealers don\u2019t know whose drugs they\u2019re selling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But with the explosion of fentanyl<\/a>, which can be pressed into tiny counterfeit pills or mixed into other drugs like cocaine and heroin, the question of how the products arrive at their final destination is of urgent importance. More Americans are dying of drug overdoses than ever before. The tentacles of Mexican criminal organizations are lengthening in the United States, their distribution methods becoming more efficient as their drugs become more dangerous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"pastedGraphic.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pounds of fentanyl<\/p>\n\n\n\n

seized since 2015<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In U.S. counties and<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexican municipalities<\/p>\n\n\n\n

San Diego<\/p>\n\n\n\n

County<\/p>\n\n\n\n

36k lbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tijuana<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.4k lbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pima County<\/p>\n\n\n\n

12k lbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Puerto<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pe\u00f1vasco<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.8k lbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Federal<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highway 15<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Venustiano<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carranza<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson had seen the outlet of that pipeline in Seattle, where he got his first job with the DEA in 2009. Mexico\u2019s two biggest criminal organizations, the Sinaloa cartel and the Jalisco New Generation cartel, both operated in the city, ordering up drug shipments directly from their counterparts in Mexico. That phenomenon has continued: From May 23 through Sept. 8 of this year, the Justice Department investigated 35 fentanyl cases <\/a>with direct links to those two groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson noted how both cartels established outposts in Seattle as if they were inaugurating a shadow consulate. The cartels recruited from within immigrant communities, exploiting recently arrived Hondurans, for example, who were pressured to pay back human smugglers by dealing drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Wilson settled into St. George, Sinaloa-linked busts were being made in unlikely places, away from major American cities. Trafficking rings were uncovered in western Pennsylvania and Battle Creek, Mich. Authorities found one Sinaloa affiliate using a bootleg phone to operate out of a federal prison in Henderson, N.C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Wilson felt good about the St. George assignment. He was a Utah native, looking for a quiet place to live with his young family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is going to be a much slower pace,\u201d he remembers thinking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the 2010s, the closest drug cartel outpost to St. George was Las Vegas, about a two-hour drive away. Small-time drug dealers transported modest loads \u2014 sometimes just a few ounces \u2014 from there to southern Utah.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMost of our cases were just these local people going to Vegas to pick up an ounce or two, or 100 pills, maybe 200 pills,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2015, the DEA published a map of \u201cAreas of Influence of Major Mexican Transnational Criminal Organizations<\/a>.\u201d St. George wasn\u2019t mentioned \u2014 a market not big enough to warrant recognition by the cartels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But demand for synthetic drugs had increased in southern Utah just as supply had surged in Mexico. St. George had itself boomed; it is now the nation\u2019s fastest-growing metropolitan area. Not long after Wilson arrived in Utah, he and his colleagues were finding fentanyl everywhere \u2014 in pillowcases and glove compartments during routine traffic stops, next to the bodies of overdose victims, once in a plastic bag in a Panda Express bathroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drugs that arrived here from Las Vegas were no longer enough. St. George had apparently gotten its first hookup directly to Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tyler West, left, and J. Banks of the Utah Highway Patrol look under a car Nov. 1 after making a stop in Sevier, a few hours north of St. George. (Salwan Georges\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c1ngel Rubio was no one\u2019s idea of a cartel kingpin. He was illiterate. He was constantly in debt. His drug business was perpetually short-staffed, so he enlisted his teenage son. Even the front for his operation \u2014 a 10-acre ranch on the edge of town \u2014 gave the appearance of an amateur. The cows kept escaping, wandering into the suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet his ability to order up drugs from Mexico was impressive to the agents watching him. At some point in his early middle age, Rubio had connected with the Sinaloa cartel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To build their case, federal agents began purchasing larger and larger quantities of drugs from Rubio, using an undercover buyer to determine the scale of his operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were buying meth at $4,000 a pound,\u201d said Jay Tinkler, then the top DEA agent in Utah and Wilson\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tinkler pleaded for more government funds to buy more drugs, partly at Wilson\u2019s insistence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m calling my boss and telling him: \u2018It\u2019s a really good case, I\u2019m telling you,\u2019\u201d Tinkler said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those purchases eventually helped the agents get a court-ordered wiretap on Rubio\u2019s phone. That\u2019s how they got a glimpse into the life of St. George\u2019s cartel connection. The surveillance was 24\/7; a team of interpreters was employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio repeatedly called the same two men in Sinaloa state, sometimes multiple times a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need buttons, they heard him say, which meant fentanyl pills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I need glass, he said, which meant meth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio also referred to drugs as goats and sheep, according to court documents in the case, \u201choping it would go undetected because he literally sold goats and sheep from his corral.\u201d The small-town nature of the investigation complicated things. Several times agents ran into an unsuspecting Rubio or his associates at the grocery store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll never guess who I saw at the store,\u201d one of the agents told Wilson after returning to the office one day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It became clear over time that the two men in Mexico were affiliated with the Sinaloa cartel. Federal agents and prosecutors referred to them jointly as \u201cthe Mexican supply,\u201d but their names, which would later appear in a federal indictment, were Ramon Higuera-Cota and Presciliano Galax-Felix. They could dispatch drugs to St. George rapidly, responding immediately to demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t that Rubio worked as an underling for the Sinaloa men. He negotiated his own prices \u2014 often ruthlessly lowballing Higuera-Cota and Galax-Felix. The federal agents began to realize that the cartel wasn\u2019t operating in St. George under a corporate hierarchy. Rubio hadn\u2019t been sent here with orders from Sinaloa. He was the semiautonomous leader of his own mini-fiefdom, able to order fentanyl, meth and cocaine like a pizza delivery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drugs would arrive a day or two after his orders were placed, crossing the border near San Diego and then moving on to stash houses, often on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Then Rubio would arrange transport to St. George. He would sometimes lecture the drivers himself, federal agents said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019d tell them: \u2018Bring your kid so it\u2019s less obvious. Always get your vehicle serviced so you don\u2019t break down,\u2019\u201d Wilson recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those cars would travel along what has increasingly become America\u2019s main fentanyl artery, Interstate 15, which connects Los Angeles to much of the country. It passes directly through St. George, where signs for available real estate continue to spring up. \u201cA new standard of life is beginning,\u201d reads one billboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ranch where \u00c1ngel Rubio Quintana ran a drug distribution ring connected to the Sinaloa cartel. (Salwan Georges\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the drugs arrived in St. George, Rubio stashed some of them on the ranch he rented. He hid other loads in storage units. Others he left in the homes of friends or buried in the horse corral. His neighbors, mostly White retirees, grew suspicious. DEA agents installed a camera in the backyard of one neighbor\u2019s home. Another neighbor, Mark Correll, a retiree from Texas, bought night-vision goggles to keep an eye on the ranch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a lot of traffic late at night,\u201d Correll said. \u201cA lot of fancy cars. We knew something was up. We just weren\u2019t sure what.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio and his colleagues, court documents said, \u201cpocketed some revenue as profits and wired payments to Mexican sources of supply.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis cycle \u2014 ordering from Mexico, picking up from California, distributing in Southern Utah, wiring payments back to Mexico \u2014 resulted in large quantities of narcotics flowing into the local community,\u201d the documents said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio\u2019s fentanyl usually arrived in the form of counterfeit oxycodone pills called M-30s, about a thousand in a bag, worth some $40,000 on the street. Those pills have become increasingly popular \u2014 and lethal \u2014 as cartels have tried to cater to drug users with rising tolerance. Rubio, agents estimate, was selling 20,000 to 30,000 pills a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An agent recalled one conversation in which Rubio tried to place a fentanyl order and was rebuffed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe already moved over 25,000 pills yesterday,\u201d one of the men in Sinaloa said. \u201cYou should have given me an order. It\u2019s already all gone.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more frequently, the Sinaloans appeared to have an endless supply. Sometimes, Rubio\u2019s connection would send him thousands more fentanyl pills than he had ordered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Rubio asked why traffickers had sent so many pills, he was told not to worry about it, said one federal official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn\u2019t authorized to discuss the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"pastedGraphic_1.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Average number of fentanyl pills<\/p>\n\n\n\n

per seizure in Mexico since 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

117k pills<\/p>\n\n\n\n

per seizure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average of<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.8k pills<\/p>\n\n\n\n

per seizure<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*2022 data as of May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe was told he could pay them back once it was sold,\u201d the official said. \u201cThey\u2019re literally pushing drugs because the quantity on the Mexico side is so high.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least twice, Rubio\u2019s debt to the Sinaloa men grew to dangerous levels. The men in Mexico began threatening him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were like, \u2018We\u2019re going to come up there and we\u2019re going to hunt you guys down,\u2019\u201d one agent recalled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarkably, Rubio called their bluff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Hey, this is America. You guys can\u2019t come here and just be running around with guns.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But when people didn\u2019t pay Rubio on time, he was the one who threatened violence. The federal agents, monitoring those threats in real time, sent police on what appeared to be routine patrols, meant to deter Rubio from hurting anyone. There was no indication that he did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio had originally moved to the United States more than two decades earlier. One of his first stops was Salt Lake City, where he worked construction. One day, he was buying food at a drive-through. A young Mexican woman named Mar\u00eda de los \u00c1ngeles Acosta took his order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually the two got married. They had three kids. When people asked her, de los \u00c1ngeles described their lives in St. George as peaceful and happy. The city wasn\u2019t as crime-ridden as some of the other American cities where Mexican migrants ended up, she said. \u201cThankful and blessed,\u201d she posted on Facebook under photos of the family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People walk in downtown St. George, a city of about 100,000. (Ronda Churchill for The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her husband\u2019s clients in St. George came from a range of backgrounds. Some were the service workers who catered to the tourists passing through the city. Others were locals who thought they were purchasing oxycodone, a prescription drug used to treat severe pain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dmytro Luke, 22, who worked for a flooring company, died after taking a counterfeit M-30 pill in February 2021. His case drew public attention after his mother began alerting local journalists to the wave of fentanyl in southern Utah that had led to her son\u2019s death. She\u2019s still not sure whether the pill that killed Luke was trafficked by Rubio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agents faced a particular dilemma with Rubio\u2019s fentanyl business. If they knew deadly pills were circulating during their investigation, agents said, they couldn\u2019t sit idly by. So they frequently intervened by buying them through informants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a complicated decision. The more pills they purchased, the higher demand could appear to Rubio, giving him an incentive to import more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A customer sits in a booth at Alvaro\u2019s Mexican Food, the St. George restaurant owned by Rubio’s in-laws. (Salwan Georges\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agents knew that some of their most valuable evidence was against Rubio\u2019s suppliers in Sinaloa. Arresting Higuera-Cota and Galax-Felix was a crucial part of the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those men appeared to be on the front line of the explosion of fentanyl. Aside from the M-30 pills, they offered Rubio cocaine and meth laced with fentanyl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey talked about that like, \u2018Hey, this is some new hot stuff like you should get,\u2019\u201d one agent said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, Rubio would tell people that he was merely working for the two men in Sinaloa. He was a small fish, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Higuera-Cota and Galax-Felix were in Mexico, the U.S. agents in Utah couldn\u2019t arrest them. It was a source of deep frustration. Agents believed they were exporting fentanyl and meth across much of the southwestern United States, potentially pushing millions of M-30s across the border every year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou have this great material and there\u2019s nothing you can do with it,\u201d said one official who worked on the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The agents in Utah shared their evidence with Justice Department officials in Washington, according to a former U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he wasn\u2019t authorized to comment. They hoped the case they had built against two men in Mexico would lead to their arrest. But that has not happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mexican officials have not pursued either Higuera-Cota or Galax-Felix, according to the country\u2019s attorney general\u2019s office. That office would not comment on why it had not issued arrest warrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither man could be reached for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interstate 15 passes directly through St. George. (Salwan Georges\/The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In St. George, federal agents decided they needed to move forward alone. By early this year, agents believed they had enough to build a case against Rubio and his associates in the United States. On a bulletin board in Wilson\u2019s office, they had mapped the dense web that connected Rubio to his team of dealers and suppliers in Mexico. They were ready to make the arrests. \u201cTakedown day,\u201d they called it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Feb. 15, dozens of officers from several SWAT teams along with federal agents prepared for raids against Rubio and his accomplices. Some were low-level drug dealers selling fentanyl to pay for their own drug habits. Others were Rubio\u2019s friends and relatives to whom he paid a fraction of his proceeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agents planned to conduct more than nine raids across Utah, many of them simultaneous. The DEA flew several aircraft overhead. The agents discussed what would happen if Rubio tried to shoot his way out, or if he tried to flee into the suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They arrived at Rubio\u2019s beige-stucco suburban home just before sunrise. It was a clear, crisp morning. They fired a stun grenade upon entering the house. They dragged Rubio, pajama-clad, from his bedroom without a fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was charged with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and methamphetamine and conspiracy to launder money. He was also charged with unlawful reentry into the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neighbors in the neatly kept suburb were alarmed. Many were armed. One young woman, living in the property next to Rubio\u2019s, loaded her handgun and sat in a lawn chair in case anyone tried to jump over her fence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agents also raided the 10-acre ranch, a few miles from Rubio\u2019s home. By the end of the day, they had arrested 12 people \u2014 including Rubio\u2019s 19-year-old son, Carlos Rubio-Acosta. Agents seized thousands of fentanyl pills, as well as cocaine and meth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio was taken to jail in Cedar City, just north of St. George. In July, he pleaded guilty to trafficking fentanyl, methamphetamine and marijuana, and to laundering the proceeds. He is awaiting sentencing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s possible that he could be deported after his prison sentence, probably a more dangerous consequence than prison, given the money he owes to the Sinaloa cartel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe left a lot of debts on the table,\u201d said one agent, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot,\u201d said another agent, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity. \u201cI can only speculate how much, but he owes a lot of money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson walks on a path with views of the city\u2019s signature red mesas. (Ronda Churchill for The Washington Post)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several months after Rubio\u2019s arrest, a Post reporter walked into Alvaro\u2019s Mexican Food, the family\u2019s fast-food restaurant, located in a St. George mall parking lot, next to a tuxedo rental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A middle-aged woman was standing behind the counter. She stood next to a painting of thepre-Columbian city of Teotihuac\u00e1n. She was on the phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Rubio\u2019s wife, Mar\u00eda de los \u00c1ngeles Acosta. She was talking to her husband in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you want to talk to him?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio\u2019s voice then boomed through the speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf what they are saying about me, 99 percent is false,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was living a quiet life with my wife and my family,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He didn\u2019t want to talk in detail about the accusations over the phone. He said he wanted to meet in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Rubio hung up, de los \u00c1ngeles sighed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She was torn. She knew nothing of Rubio\u2019s drug business, she said. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer in 2021, and the family had scrambled to pay for her medical care. She didn\u2019t think her husband would resort to drug trafficking to pay those bills. But she said she believed U.S. law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe authorities cannot be wrong,\u201d she said. \u201cIf I trust anyone 100 percent, it is the U.S. authorities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as she knew, she said, Rubio had been a struggling livestock trader. But he had been acting strange lately, she admitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He had created a policy for the family of turning all cellphones off at home. He seemed anxious all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just assumed he was having an affair,\u201d she said. \u201cOne day I\u2019d like to know the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later, she said she was planning to divorce Rubio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His lawyer, Trinity Jordan, said his client did not want to speak to The Post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI talked to my client about your story and at this time he prefers to not participate,\u201d Jordan wrote in an email.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio\u2019s son Carlos Rubio-Acosta pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to launder money. He was sentenced in August to 15 months in prison.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe followed his father\u2019s lead and instructions while participating in the organization,\u201d the sentencing document said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio\u2019s own sentencing hearing is scheduled for later this month. Agents found no evidence of a connection between his extended family\u2019s restaurant and the drug business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson left the DEA this year for a job at the U.S. attorney\u2019s office. He\u2019s still working on the Rubio case, as well as other drug-related cases in St. George.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rubio\u2019s arrest appeared to have an immediate impact, Wilson said. The flow of drugs arriving here appeared to diminish \u2014 mostly smaller loads arriving from Las Vegas at higher prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Wilson knew that wouldn\u2019t last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, the sizes of drug seizures in St. George have increased once again. In October, local police stopped a 19-year-old Mexican man with 62,000 counterfeit M-30 pills near the St. George exit of I-15. The load was twice as big as those Rubio had handled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no confirmation yet, but Wilson recognized the signs. Soon, it would be time to start again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

About this story<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporting by Kevin Sieff<\/a>. Steven Rich <\/a>also contributed reporting. Photography by Salwan Georges<\/a> and Ronda Churchill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Design and development by Allison Mann<\/a> and Tyler Remmel<\/a>. Additional design and development by Laura Padilla Castellanos<\/a> and Rekha Tenjarla<\/a>. Graphics by J\u00falia Ledur<\/a>. Data analysis by Steven Rich<\/a> and Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul. \u201cPost Reports\u201d production by Ariel Plotnick<\/a>, Reena Flores<\/a> and Elahe Izadi<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trish Wilson<\/a> and Courtney Kan<\/a> were the lead editors. Additional editing by Chiqui Esteban<\/a>, Christian Font<\/a>, Meghan Hoyer<\/a>, Jai-Leen James<\/a>, Jeff Leen<\/a>, Jordan Melendrez<\/a>, Robert Miller<\/a>, Frances Moody<\/a> and Martha Murdock<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional support from Steven Bohner, Matthew Callahan<\/a>, Sarah Childress<\/a>, Sarah Dunton<\/a>, Jenna Lief, Monika Mathur<\/a>, Angel Mendoza, Sarah Murray, Ben Pillow<\/a>, Sarah Pineda, Andrea Platten<\/a>, Kyley Schultz<\/a>, Casey Silvestri<\/a>, John Taylor<\/a> and Mael Vallejo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data for graphics is from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas<\/em>, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, Secretar\u00eda de la Defensa Nacional, Fiscal\u00eda General de la Rep\u00fablica, Secretar\u00eda de Marina and the Guardia Nacional<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cartel RX<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a seven-part investigation, The Washington Post followed the fentanyl epidemic from Mexican labs to U.S. streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Methodology<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Post analyzed data from a range of sources to measure the rise of fentanyl in the United States and Mexico. Among other topics, reporters compiled data on drug seizures, overdose deaths and reversals, border crossings and fentanyl potency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data was collected from more than three dozen federal, state and local sources across the United States and Mexico. For example, for the count of overdose deaths in the United States, The Post used mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. To measure data seizures along Route 15 in Mexico, reporters standardized multiple datasets from agencies including the Secretar\u00eda de la Defensa Nacional, Fiscal\u00eda General de la Rep\u00fablica, Secretar\u00eda de Marina and the Guardia Nacional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reporters made open records requests in both countries, retrieved data from government websites to create data sets and obtained and analyzed seizure data from High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas, run by the White House\u2019s drug czar, by submitting a detailed research proposal to gain access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CartelNext up<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"pastedGraphic_2.png\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Overview: From Mexican labs to U.S. streets, a lethal pipeline<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

More stories in this series<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kevin Sieff Dec. 13 at 6:10 a.m. ST. GEORGE, Utah \u2014 The meth was expensive. The federal agents were running out of money. They had been buying loads of drugs in undercover operations, trying to trace the pipeline of methamphetamine and fentanyl into this sleepy city of retirees, out-of-town hikers and Mormon churches. Brady Wilson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":524,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sluggerpost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}