14th April 2013

[http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wzdtQvUkDqY/UU5DtpeLKXI/AAAAAAAAGNw/azNESUVGNto/s1600/african_narco_news_cocaine_zetas_1.jpg]Just three years ago, Jose Trevino Morales was working as abricklayer in Texas [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/an-american-gangster-in-mexico.html] , and his wife, Zulema Flores Trevino, was an officeclerk for a staffing company.

They lived in Balch Springs, Texas, outside Dallas. They raisedfour children and made less than $60,000 total in 2009 from thosejobs. They often only had about $2,000 in their bank account.

In late 2009, that all changed. That fall, Jose Trevino started up aracehorse operation. It was funded — the FBI says — by millionsof dollars from the powerful and violent Los Zetas [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/zetas.html] Mexican drug cartelrun by his two younger brothers. The FBI claims the two brothers,

A Drug Family in the Winner’s Circle

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over the last two years, have funneled $1 million a month into theUnited States to purchase race horses.

Last year, Jose Trevino and his wife moved their operation to asprawling quarter-horse ranch near Lexington, south of OklahomaCity. He named the ranch Zule Farms, after his wife. There theymade improvements and cared for about 400 horses.

Newcomers rarely make it into the winner’s circle at theA.A.F,considered the Kentucky Derby of quarter horse racing.

Yet in September 2010, a beaming band of men waving Mexicanflags and miniature piñatas swept into Ruidoso, N.M., to claim themillion-dollar prize with a long-shot colt named Mr. Piloto. Leadingthe revelry at the track was Mr. Piloto’s owner, José TreviñoMorales, 45, a self-described brick mason who had grown up poorin Mexico. Across the border, Ramiro Villarreal, an affableassociate who had helped acquire the winning colt, celebrated ata bar with friends.

As for the man who made the whole day possible, Miguel Ángel

Treviño Morales [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/former-dallas-resident-now-capo.html] , he was living on the run, one of the most wanted drugtraffickers in the world. Mr. Treviño, a younger brother of JoséTreviño, is second in command of Mexico’s Zetas drug traffickingorganization. Thin with a furrowed brow, he has become theorganization’s lead enforcer — infamous for dismembering hisvictims while they are still alive.

To get in on the action at American tracks, Miguel Ángel Treviñoneeded someone he could trust to pick a winner. For that, heturned to Mr. Villarreal.

Mr. Villarreal was an unlikely horseman, the socially awkward sonof a bookkeeper and teacher known for his build and bottomlessappetite as “El Gordo,” or “Fatso.” He began attending auctions asa child, and developed an uncanny ability to spot horses that maynot have come from the best lineage, but whose stride or attitudesuggested an exceptional capacity for speed.

Mr. Villarreal’s parents said he started buying horses as ateenager, mostly borrowing from relatives and friends. Still, henever seemed to have enough to purchase the kinds of horsesthat could compete for major prizes. Nor did the strikinglyeffeminate man ever develop the social skills needed to fit into themacho world of breeders and trainers.

In some ways, said one friend, he stopped trying. For a while, henamed his horses after runway models — like Campbell, as inNaomi, and Elle, as in Macpherson — because he was captivatedby women’s fashion.

Mr. Villarreal got his big break in 2006, when he cobbled together$10,500 to buy a colt at an auction at Los Alamitos, records show.

He took the horse to Mexico, named it “El Sicario” — whichmeans “The Assassin” — and entered it in the parejera circuit,where it began to beat younger, better-rated competitors.

“That horse got 40’s attention,” said one of Mr. Villarreal’s friends.“He told Ramiro, ‘I want you to buy horses for me.’ ”

Soon, the younger Mr. Villarreal’s name began appearing on thelists of the top buyers at auctions in California, Texas, New Mexicoand Oklahoma. His first champion was Tempting Dash, which wonmore than $600,000 in 2009, set a track record during the TexasClassic Futurity and gave Tremor its first victory in a million-dollarrace.

No matter how successful, Mr. Villarreal always showed deferenceto his boss, calling him “Papi.” When Miguel Ángel Treviño wantedto see Tempting Dash for himself, Mr. Villarreal drove the horse,along with dozens of others, to Mexico.

Getting back was more complicated. To avoid inspections,quarantines and other procedures required for bringing livestockinto the United States, Mr. Villarreal had trainers sneak the horsesback across the border, herding them just after dawn through theRio Grande.

As much as Miguel Ángel Treviño relied on Mr. Villarreal, heneeded his brother, José, to be the face of his fledgling Americanhorse business.

José Treviño, the clean-cut father of three, with a small tattooedTremor logo on his hand, almost always attended races with hisfamily at his side. He often credited his success to a combinationof divine intervention and dumb luck.

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Jose Trevino Morales

At the start, José Treviño seemed reticent in the spotlight,avoiding reporters by pretending he did not speak good English.But the more races he won, the more comfortable he seemed withcameras and microphones. People who knew him said he neversought out the media, but never refused to talk when they called.

When the colt named Mr. Piloto won the All American Futurity inRuidoso, N.M., racing writers called it the “biggest upset in All-American history,” and marvelled at how Mr. Treviño, with a“green-as-grass” horse, could beat competitors with betterqualifying times and world-class jockeys.

Mr. Piloto may have had help. The F.B.I. affidavit said MiguelÁngel Treviño boasted to associates that he had paid some$10,000 to “gatekeepers to hold back the horses competingagainst Mr. Piloto.”Last year a sorrel filly named Separate Fireswept the Ed Burke Futurity at Los Alamitos, Calif., deliveringJosé Treviño his third race where the top prizes were worth $1million — a record.

Last year, said people who know him, José Treviño moved hisfamily from a modest suburban house in Mesquite, Tex., where hesaid he worked in the construction industry, to a large ranchoutside Lexington, Okla.

The 70-acre ranch, Zule Farms, is named after his wife, Zulema, aformer secretary who told people that she kept the books forTremor. A person familiar with the ranch said that Mr. Treviño hadconverted a cattle barn on the property into a breeding facility,with state-of-the-art labs and special stalls where mares areimplanted with embryos.

“There’s no way all the money he’s putting into that ranch camefrom being a brick mason. It’s just not logical,” said a personfamiliar with Zule Farms.

Federal authorities said that José and Zulema Treviño earned lessthan $70,000 in 2008 and less than $60,000 in 2009.

Even so, he bought horses worth hundreds of thousands ofdollars at a time, according to the affidavit. On at least a coupleoccasions, he had other people sign for the company’s majorpurchases, quarter horse industry records show. One deal wassigned by a teenager who looked too young to drive. The otherwas handled by the scion of a prominent quarter horse family,Tyler Graham, who stunned a packed auction house in Oklahomaby agreeing to pay a record $875,000 for a broodmare namedDashin Follies.

At the time of the sale, Mr. Graham said he was buying the horseon behalf of a client [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/behind-scenes-of-zetas.html] hewould only identify as “a Mexico resident.” Shortly afterwards records show, he turned the horse over to Tremor. Mr. Graham

has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

An industry expert who attended the auction said the saleprompted more rumours But he said sketchy deals are notuncommon in an industry where payments are made in cash andrecords are notoriously — even deliberately — unreliable.

“If someone walks into an auction with hundreds of thousands ofdollars, and refuses to give his name, no one is going turn himaway,” the industry expert said. “What they’ll tell him is, ‘We’llregister the horse in any name you want.’ ”

As José Treviño’s prominence grew in the quarter horsecommunity, so did Miguel Ángel Treviño’s place in the drug trade.By the end of 2010, he had helped lead a brutal expansion sodeep into Mexico that the Zetas became not only a priority forMexico’s security forces, but also an enemy that inspired otherdrug organizations to join forces and fight.

Miguel Ángel Treviño’s control over drug warehouses and hitsquads across the border also compelled United Statesauthorities to offer a $5 million reward for information leading tohis arrest.

At the same time, Mr. Villarreal was falling out of favour withTremor. He was openly upset that the Zetas had forced him totransfer ownership of one of his best racehorses to Tremor,according to the affidavit, which said the cartel used “the threat ofdeath” to compel associates to sign over horses or help themmove money.

Mr. Villarreal was also in debt because the Treviño brothers barelypaid him enough to cover travel costs, friends said. Mr. Villarrealbegan padding his expenses, prompting Miguel Ángel Treviño tosuspect him of skimming money from Tremor, the friends said.

In September 2010, Mr. Villarreal was travelling to a horse auctionin Oklahoma when he was detained by D.E.A. [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/is-us-working-with-sinaloa-cartel.html] agents during a layover at a Houston airport. Aspokesman for the agency refused to comment on its relationshipwith Mr. Villarreal.

But several law enforcement officials familiar with the case saidagents held him for up to six hours, questioning him about his tiesto Miguel Ángel Treviño. Before releasing him, the agentsconfiscated Mr. Villarreal’s cellphone and computer, and orderedhim to meet with them a few days later.

When Mr. Villarreal returned, the agents said he could either workfor them as an informant or face being prosecuted himself,according to the officials. The D.E.A. wanted Mr. Villarreal to helptrack Miguel Ángel Treviño’s whereabouts and then lure him intothe United States [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/guinea-bissau-bubo-na-tchuto-arrested.html] .

Mr. Villarreal pleaded that he was too nervous to pull off the ruse,adding that Miguel Ángel Treviño would never trust him enough tofollow him across the border.

But the D.E.A. insisted and a beleaguered Mr. Villarreal relented,the officials said.

At least once, Mr. Villarreal tipped off his handlers when MiguelÁngel Treviño went to a racetrack in Nuevo Laredo.

“Mexican authorities took pictures of 40, but they didn't try toarrest him,” said one of Mr. Villarreal’s friends. “They told Ramirothat they were afraid too many people might get killed. Ramiro

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Villareals charred remains found in car

told them if they waited any longer, he was going to get killed.”

Sometime around the end of that year, Miguel Ángel Treviñosummoned Villarreal to a meeting. Villarreal’s friends recountedthe following incident as he had described it to them.

A pickup point was arranged in Laredo, where Mr. Villarreal wasblindfolded and then driven into the Mexican desert by gang

members.

Minutes dragged as Mr. Villarreal waited for Miguel Ángel Treviño.He saw two vats filled with a liquid he presumed to be acid, one ofthe trafficker’s preferred methods for disposing of bodies.

Miguel Ángel Treviño arrived about an hour later in a car withmore lieutenants and an unknown man, who was also wearing ablindfold.

The trafficker hugged Mr. Villarreal and asked, “You’re notscrewing me, are you, Gordo?”

“No, of course not, Papi,” Mr. Villarreal answered.

Saying he would be back “in a minute,” Miguel Ángel Treviñowalked over to the unknown man, took off his blindfold, shot himin the head and ordered his men to dump the body in one of thevats of acid.

Mr. Villarreal passed out. He told his friends he did not know howlong he was unconscious, but when he awoke Miguel ÁngelTreviño was slapping him in the face and laughing.

“What’s wrong, Gordo?” he joked. “You can’t handle seeing me killsomeone? Next time, I'm going to have you do it.”

“No Papi,” Mr. Villarreal said. “I don’t want there to be a next time.”

The drug trafficker got back into his car and drove away. Mr.Villarreal was taken back to Laredo, where he immediatelyimplored the D.E.A. to release him from their agreement.

“When I met him he was a complete mess; profusely sweating,gangrene in one leg, and barely able to walk,” said a former law

enforcement official. “He was in between a rock and a hard place:either stay in the United States and risk going to prison, or goback to Mexico and risk getting killed.”

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Miguel Ángel Treviño

In the end, Mr. Villarreal, 38, continued informing for the D.E.A.and in March, Miguel Ángel Treviño summoned him to anothermeeting.

On March 10, 2011, Mr. Villarreal’s car was found incineratedoutside Nuevo Laredo. There was so little left of him thatauthorities took DNA samples from the ashes to identify hisremains. One federal law enforcement official said some agentsbelieved his death was an accident, but acknowledged that no

investigation was conducted.

Mr. Villarreal’s father said he had little hope of ever finding thetruth. Asked who he thought was behind Mr. Villarreal’s death, theround, balding man looked over at his wife, tears streaming downher cheeks, and echoed a refrain heard from so many Mexicancrime victims. “If we ask questions, we could be the next ones todie, so for us, this is a closed chapter.”

Whispers of a “mob hit” spread across the quarter horse industry.In March, law enforcement agents even raided Tremor’s stables atLos Alamitos racetrack after receiving tips that Omar Treviño hadflown there to look at some new horses. But none of it seemed toslow down Tremor’s business.

Last weekend, at Los Alamitos, a Tremor colt named Mr. EaseCartel ran the second-fastest qualifying time for a million-dollarrace scheduled for June 24. When Jose Treviño’s daughter wasmarried recently, guests included prominent figures in the industry,and Track magazine covered the “big event” online.

“If he had been some thug, or the stereotypical person you’dexpect to be in a drug cartel, then maybe people wouldn’t haveaccepted him and done business with him,” a former trainer saidof José Treviño. “But he’s a really nice guy, so none of us wantedto believe he could have anything to do with the killing going on inMexico.”

The Grahams the prominent Texas family with connections to thestate’s top officials is alleged to have purchased and boardedhorses for a Mexican drug cartel engaged in money laundering,according to court records.

Federal indictments recently unsealed in Austin allege that 14defendants with Spanish surnames used elite U.S. racehorses to

launder millions of dollars of drug money for Mexico’s ruthless LosZetas cartel. The indictments also implicate the renowned South-West Stallion Station breeding stables outside Austin, run by aveterinarian named Charles Graham and his grandson Tyler. Overthe past decade, they have contributed almost $250,000 tofederal and state politicians led by Texas’ top three officials. In2008 Gov. Perry appointed Dr. Graham to the now-defunct TexasDepartment of Rural Affairs. The Grahams haven’t been chargedwith wrongdoing, and their names don’t appear in the indictments.But allegations made against their stables in the indictmentssuggest that the Zetas cartel paid the Grahams a small fortune inrecent years. In all, Tyler Graham bought more than $1 millionworth of horses that ended up in the hands of the Zetas cartel,which made at least $550,000 in payments to the Grahams’stable, according to trade publications and the indictment. TheGrahams didn’t respond to calls and emails seeking comment.

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Charles Graham

While never mentioning the Grahams, the money-launderingindictment alleges that the Zeta [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/el-lazca-leader-of-zetas-dead.html]conspirators paid their South-West Stallion stables $550,000 lastJuly to board and breed Zeta racehorses. One way the cartellaundered money, according to the indictment, was to let cartelflunkies hold title to a horse until it won a big race or became

lucrative through the sale of breeding rights. Then backdatedcontracts were drawn up suggesting that Jose Treviño—one ofthree brothers at the centre of the conspiracy—presciently boughtthe champ on the relative cheap just before it hit the big leagues,according to the indictments. One Zeta horse was not-so-subtlychristened Number One Cartel.

In 2010 Tyler Graham went to Oklahoma City to attend the horseauction at Heritage Place, a 40-acre facility co-owned by CharlesGraham, according to TRACK Magazine. Amid a global economiccrisis, average sales prices at the auction increased by 14 percentover the year before. Driving this inflation, Tyler Graham placedthe winning bids on the event’s two most-expensive horses. Hebid $250,000 for a young mare named Coronita Cartel and arecord $875,000 for the breeding mare Dashin Follies. TRACKMagazine reported at the time that Graham shipped the mareshome to South-West Stallion Stables—but not on his ownaccount. The trade publication reported that Graham “was actingas an agent for an undisclosed buyer who reportedly is a Mexicanresident.”

Describing that same auction, the recent indictments allege thatdefendant Jose Treviño “directed the purchase” of both horses “ina nominee name.” Then a company controlled by Mexicanbusinessman Alejandro Barrandas allegedly wired more than$900,000 while defendant Luis Gerardo Aguirre allegedly suppliedanother $100,000 in cash, according to the indictments. Two otherdefendants allegedly then paid to board the horses for six weeksat the stables before the prize horse were shipped to JoseTreviño’s Oklahoma ranch, according to the indictment.

In August, Tyler Graham posted photos on Facebook of some ofhis yearlings, including Tahiti Cartel. Sired by Carona Cartel, thehorse sold at Heritage Place in September 2011 for $50,000.Among Graham’s friends on Facebook: Ramiro Villarreal, a gifted

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Tyler Graham

Mexican horseman who Miguel Treviño, the second-highestranking Zeta, recruited to help build his quarter-horse enterprise.At some point, Villarreal reluctantly became a DEA informant,according to The New York Times; in March 2011, his charredremains were found in a car outside Nuevo Laredo.

Trade publications and the recent indictments indicate that TylerGraham bought more than $1 million worth of horses that woundup with the Zetas and that cartel made at least $550,000 in

payments to the Grahams’ stable. It’s not clear if the Grahamsknew who they were buying horses for. The copy of theindictments made public redacts the name of one unknowndefendant.

Not in doubt are the Graham’s political connections. Since 2001,the Grahams have contributed $32,025 to Perry’s campaignaccount, accord to state records. They’ve also donated to Lt. Gov.David Dewhurst ($17,100), House Speaker Joe Straus ($15,500),a San Antonio Republican, and state Sen. Kirk Watson ($15,500),an Austin Democrat.

Miguel Ángel Treviño, [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/former-dallas-resident-now-capo.html] known as Zeta-40, or just 40, was never in the military.But he became useful to the Zetas for his experience movingcontraband across the border.

Law enforcement authorities say the Zetas have been able torapidly expand their reach beyond Mexico’s borders with theUnited States and Guatemala. And while other Mexican drugorganizations prefer to keep themselves and their money close tohome, the Zetas [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/zetas.html] have establishedoutposts as far as South America and West Africa. [http://african-business.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/africas-white-economy-part-2.html]

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Posted 14th April 2013 by African Blog

Labels: Charles Graham, José Treviño Morales, Miguel Ángel Treviño, Omar TreviñoMorales, Ramiro Villarreal, South-West Stallion Station, Tyler Graham, Zeta-40, Zetas

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