Drug agents seize 508acre border ranch
Officials hail action; nearby resident says she still feels unsafe

By David Mclemore / The Dallas Morning News

QUEMADO, Texas A 508acre Maverick County ranch seized by federal drug
agents is a symptom of both the problem and the solution to a border
overrun by drug traffickers, a U.S. attorney said Friday.

"Last year, Maverick County ranchers told us of their fears that their land
was being overrun by traffickers. This property is proof they were right,"
said Bill Blagg, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas. "But
we've taken it back, and I hope the ranchers see this as a sign they can
come forward and help us fight the drug dealers."

A Maverick County woman, who with her husband operates a nearby cattle
ranch, said area ranchers were pleased by the seizure but questioned just
how much it will change the situation.

"We're always happy to see the dopers fall," said the woman, who asked that
her name not be used. "But we still can't let our grandkids roam the ranch
and we still don't feel safe at night."

Las Moras Ranch, a land of rolling scrub brush and mesquite that folds down
to the Rio Grande from U.S. Highway 277, about 10 miles upriver from the
small town of Quemado.

Long a favored crossing point for Mexican drug traffickers, the ranch was
seized by U.S. Customs narcotics agents last October after a lengthy
investigation of a marijuana smuggling operation run by Alvaro
NarvizGuerra. It was officially forfeited to the U.S. government Sept. 8
by a federal judge in Austin.

Eventually, the ranch will be sold, with about 20 percent of the proceeds
going to the federal government and the remainder to state and local
agencies that helped in the investigation.

Mr. NarvizGuerra, 44, a wellconnected marijuana distributor from Ciudad
Acuna, Mexico, bought the property in 1991 for about $1.2 million, mostly
in cash, through a third party to hide his identity, according to David
Wharton, resident agent in charge of the Customs investigations office in
Del Rio.

"It was a perfect place for the dope trade," Mr. Wharton said. "You can
walk in from Mexico in broad daylight and no one's going to know."

He has a point. The land slopes down toward the river, which is only 1 to 3
feet deep. Dirt trails lead up from the river, tunneling through cane
growing 14 feet high along the banks.

A wider dirt road winds nearly three miles up to a metal barn, where,
agents said, Mr. NarvizGuerra's workers stashed the marijuana for shipment
to Austin, Houston and on to California, Louisiana, Ohio, Georgia and North
Carolina.

Over four years, Mr. NarvizGuerra and his partner, Larry A. Grant, 45, a
native of Hondo, shipped out 10 to 12 tons of marijuana, according to court
records.

Both Mr. NarvizGuerra and Mr. Grant were convicted by a federal jury in
Austin on Dec. 10, 1996. Mr. Grant was sentenced to 15 2/3 years for drug
smuggling and money laundering. Mr. NarvizGuerra received 30 years under
the drug kingpin statute.

While Customs agents began gathering information on Mr. NarvizGuerra and
Mr. Grant in the early 1990s, the case began to gel after federal agents in
Austin arrested four North Texas residents with 455 pounds of marijuana.
The quartet told police that they had picked up the marijuana at a place
called Las Moras Ranch, which was listed in the name of Francisco Garza of
Tepic, Mexico.

Records seized from Mr. Grant's home helped investigators demonstrate that
Mr. Garza had been a strawman buyer for Mr. NarvizGuerra. Bank records
showed the purchase amount had been funneled through Mexican banks in
Ciudad Acuna into American accounts.

"When they bought the ranch, they initially attempted to make it look like
a legitimate commercial operation," said Customs Agent Jeff Boyette, who
led the investigation. "But over the first two years, they began selling
off cattle and equipment and it became pretty clear they weren't in the
cattle business anymore."

This kind of smuggling operation indicates increased sophistication by drug
traffickers in the Del Rio area in smuggling drugs and disguising their
profits, Agent Boyette said.

"This is just how the area around McAllen and Brownsville was about five
years ago," he said. "And it's only going to get worse."

With the disruption of two major Mexican drug cartels by the conviction of
Juan GarciaAbrego and the death of Amado Carillo Fuentes, a power vacuum
among drug smugglers has driven more narcotics toward Del Rio, he said.
"Plus, with the pressure exerted by Operation Rio Grande in Brownsville and
increased interdiction in El Paso, we're the next big hole in the border,"
he said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Marshall, who prosecuted Mr. NarvizGuerra,
said the convictions and the seizure of the ranch mark a significant loss
to the drug traffickers.

"We have shut down a major network, sent nine people to prison and took
money away from the bad guys," Mr. Marshall said. "It's not a question of
no place being safe along the border. We're making it safe for the good guys."

The seizure of Las Moras Ranch also indicates a renewed commitment to the
drug war along this part of the border, said Mr. Blagg.

Mr. Blagg noted that a few years ago, there was one prosecutor assigned to
the Del Rio court. Now there are six.

"Our criminal docket in the Del Rio sector has increased 230 percent over
the past year," he said. "We've filed 400 new cases and half of them are
drug cases."

He added, "There's a new sense of cooperation between federal, state and
local law enforcement to renew our efforts to stop the drugs at the border.
If we can keep it from getting to Austin and Houston, what's wrong with
that?"