BORDER TOWN, USA — Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control (OBN) officials announced the arrest of 16 people for their alleged roles in a Mexican cartel-connected drug trafficking organization. Investigators said the local residents purchased fentanyl directly from “cartels out of Mexico.” The state did not specify which cartel was involved.
Fox 23 Tulsa reported that OBN agents arrested 16 people in connection to a months-long investigation into a local drug-trafficking ring in northeast Oklahoma. The members of the organization reportedly purchased “raw fentanyl powder” from “people directly tied to the cartels out of Mexico.”
"The organization referred to the fentanyl as 'tacos.' This never changed throughout the investigation.” -undercover OBN agent. https://t.co/ilD6wmg2cJ
— FOX23 (@FOX23) September 30, 2023
“These individuals are buying directly from people tied to the cartels out of Mexico that are bringing raw fentanyl powder across the border, moving it up into the Tulsa area. But also, it’s impacting the distribution in places like Bartlesville, Collinsville, Chouteau,” OBN spokesman Mark Woodward told the local Fox affiliate. “Today they’re using social media to arrange for the loads being brought from Mexico to Tulsa and then they were using social media to arrange for the pickup and distribution once it got to Tulsa and moving it to places like Collinsville and Bartlesville to support somebody’s opioid addiction. Just one of those dosage units, as we’ve seen, you know, unfortunately, over the last several years, could be fatal because of just how powerful fentanyl can be.”
The news outlet released the names of some of those arrested:
- Justin Daniel Smith
- Erin Joy Zaremba
- Kimberly Whisenhunt
- Joseph Kristopher George
- Dana Ryan-Tapp
- Chad Bentley Dorst
- John Frederick Carter
- Victoria Stephanie Sumner (Hendertilo)
- Brandon Dale Wilson
The arrests in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, area follow another cartel-connected smuggling organization arrested in the Oklahoma City area in June.
News Nation’s Jorge Ventura reported the investigation led to the seizure of the seizure of more than 14,000 fentanyl pills and ten pounds of heroin that were “purchased and shipped from Mexican cartels.”
A 16-month investigation comes to an end after the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and several other law enforcement agencies shut down a major fentanyl and heroin trafficking network out of Oklahoma City. Officials tell me the drugs were purchased and shipped from Mexican cartels ,… pic.twitter.com/vfyorR53zu
— Jorge Ventura Media (@VenturaReport) June 13, 2023
“They’re ordering them (the drugs) from Mexico,” Woodward told New Nation in June. “The cartels are bringing them across the border, getting them to their suppliers on this side of the border.”
OBN agents used GPS tracker and other surveillance methods to follow the drugs from the border region to Oklahoma, Fox 23 added.
“We’ve identified a total of 23 people at this point and have been serving arrest warrants for them this week, including yesterday and today,” Woodward told Fox 23. “Right now, we’ve got 16 in custody. We still have about several outstanding that we believe we’re going to be able to get into custody pretty soon that are looking at a variety of charges, including the trafficking of fentanyl.”
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
