NORCROSS, Ga. — Two people are facing drug trafficking charges after a cartel drug bust in Gwinnett County.
Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson spoke to federal agents about the operation.
Agents told Johnson the bust happened just weeks after the cartel’s leader was killed in Mexico during a joint U.S.-Mexico military operation.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said one of the people arrested was a convicted felon, while the other was an undocumented immigrant.
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Researchers told Channel 2 Action News that the cartels operate like a franchise and the people running the operations in the metro Atlanta area aren’t slowed down by a shakeup at the top in Mexico.
“The head of the organization is gone, but the operation still has to continue,” Professor Jose Da Cruz, U.S. Army War College, said.
In February, a military operation saw the Mexican Army shoot and kill cartel leader El Mencho, who was in charge of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.
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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said the organization moves more fentanyl into the United States than any other organization in the world, and despite El Mencho’s death, it hasn’t stopped.
“These are people who operate on a franchise model,” Michael Logan, professor of criminal justice at Kennesaw State University, said.
Weeks after El Mencho’s death, federal agents told Channel 2 Action News that a member of the same cartel showed up at a shopping center parking lot off Buford Highway in Norcross.
Agents said Benjamin Alberto Lozoya sold an undercover officer two kilograms of methamphetamine right out in the open.
Then, agents followed Lozoya to a nearby shed, finding more meth and nine kilograms of fentanyl inside.
“I don’t think there’s any safe haven anymore when it comes to cartel operations,” Da Cruz said. “You can expect to see this happening even closer to home.”
Researchers who study drug cartels told Johnson that when a leader falls, the subordinates below them don’t just wait around.
“You do see a backlash effect where when a leader is removed, it gives more autonomy to individual members,” Logan said.
Cartels were in metro Atlanta before El Mencho. Researchers said they’ll still be in the area after.
“It’s too big of an industry to just disappear overnight,” Da Cruz said.
Both men arrested remain in federal custody.
The second person arrested, the undocumented immigrant, faces deportation.
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