Largest Meth Seizure In Miami-Dade History Brings Cartel Arrests

MIAMI-DADE, COUNTY — The leader of a notorious Mexican drug cartel and five others have been charged by South Florida federal prosecutors for their roles in importing 500 kilograms (more than 1,100 pounds) of Mexican methamphetamine into the United States, the Department of Justice said in a news release.

An undercover investigation led to federal agents busting their shipment — two truckloads of drugs mixed with concrete tiles and house paint — which was the largest seizure of crystal meth in Miami-Dade County history, the DOJ said.

In two separate criminal complaints, six men have been charged with drug conspiracy, drug trafficking, drug importation and other crimes.

The former mayor of Aguililla, Mexico, Adalberto “Fructo” Fructuoso Comparan-Rodriguez was charged with drug trafficking crimes in the first complaint. The 57-year-old is also the leader of the United Cartels in Michoacán, Mexico, federal officials said.

The first complaint also charges Alfonso Rustrian, 34, of Mexico, as a co-conspirator. Comparan-Rodriguez and Rustrian were arrested in Guatemala Tuesday at the request of the United States.

A second criminal complaint charges an additional four defendants for their roles in the methamphetamine scheme: Adalberto Fructose Comparan-Bedolla, 31 (the son of Comparan-Rodriguez); Carlos Basauri-Coto, 31; Silviano Gonzalez-Aguilar, 44; and Salvador Valdez, 34.

They were arrested in Miami Tuesday. They’ve made their initial court appearances and are scheduled for detention hearings in Miami’s federal magistrate court April 7.

Comparan-Rodriguez and Rustrian met in Cali, Colombia, with an undercover agent they believed to be a money launderer and drug trafficker associated with Hezbollah in January, according to the criminal complaint affidavits.

They agreed that Comparan-Rodriguez and Rustrian would send 500 kilograms of methamphetamine in two truckloads from Mexico to the Miami, traveling through Texas, the DOJ said. They hid the drugs in concrete tiles and five-gallon buckets of house paint.

The first shipment of about 200 kilograms arrived in Miami March 20. The second shipment of the remaining 300 kilograms arrived March 26.

Comparan-Bedolla worked with two chemists, Gonzalez-Aguilar and Valdez, for several days at South Florida a warehouse extracting pure crystal meth from the house paint, the DOJ said. Law enforcement agents seized the meth before it hit the streets.

Basauri-Coto, who was in charge of laundering the methamphetamine sales, proposed laundering the money through two of his companies and planned to fly out more than $4 million in cash on a private jet, the DOJ said. On Tuesday, just before his arrest, he accepted a suitcase full of cash for this purpose.

“As the threat of methamphetamine continues to grow in Florida, this was yet another brazen attempt by a highly organized and dangerous foreign criminal group to set up a significant methamphetamine pipeline from Mexico directly into the Miami Metro Area,” Keith Weis, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Miami Field Division special agent in charge, said. “Fortunately, our dedicated foreign and domestic investigators and prosecutors from numerous agencies, interdicted this effort by making record seizures of an extremely hazardous narcotic while simultaneously removing the primary leadership.”