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| Mexican Cartels Taking Over Texas Homes |
| 2011-02-05 |
| DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) -- Picture the perfect North Texas neighborhood. They are children running along the streets. The houses have beautiful lawns with manicured shrubbery. Big trees line the sidewalks. College fans show their true colors by flying flags showing their favorite teams. But, if you take a much closer look at some middle-to-upper class North Texas neighborhoods, you may see a slight difference in some homes. The windows are sealed off with shutters that never open or dark-tinted windows. There is a mysterious silence that lurks around the home. What's behind the closed doors of these house? No one would ever suspect- except maybe Ed Fox, who heads up the Volunteers on Patrol Program for the Prestonwood West Neighborhood. "It not only took this one down, but about three others," says Fox as he looks a former house that sold drugs. In the last two-years, Fox has alerted law enforcement to suspicious activity that's taken down several houses for growing, manufacturing or selling drugs. CBS 11 has learned that the dealers used guns to protect the enormous amount of money and drugs found inside. A few blocks away, an undercover drug investigator takes CBS 11 to another house. It is a large ranch-style white house with a beautiful lawn. The house now belongs to another family, but the investigator, who did not want us to reveal his identity, said it looked just like this when it was a "grow" house. Is the Mexican drug cartel's presence increasing here in North Texas? "Absolutely," says the investigator showing us around. He admits it is 'scary.' "They'll do whatever it takes to get into your neighborhood and hide." "That's where we are finding the high powered weapons," says Constable Ben Adamcik, who says he has helped the Dallas Police Department and Drug Enforcement Administration take down 40 of these homes in the last three years. It's not common for Constables to get involved in this activity, but Adamcik is a former police officer and fighting drugs is his passion. The father and grandfather is determined to protect the children in the neighborhoods he protects. Besides weapons, bullet proof vests and silencers, he shows us picture after picture of what he's seized. It's cocaine, ecstasy, ice, thousands of pounds of marijuana and hundreds of thousands of dollars in drug profits. The pictures have all been taken after raids of middle-to-upper class North Texas homes. Adamcik says the diving economy drove the Mexican cartel here. He says they are buying up the foreclosed houses and then hiding inside neighborhoods where no one suspects drug activity. The Constable says, "It's too easy to buy these houses." But they're not all Mexican cartels, Adamcik has helped shut down many domestic operations as well. Being pro-active keeps people like Ed Fox, out patrolling. "I would encourage anybody to keep their eye out in their neighborhood, regardless of what they think of their neighborhood," said Fox. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 Mexican terrorists - supporting housing prices in the USA by buying places Americans can no longer afford. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-02-05 16:56 |
| #1 There was one such house I know of, rather atypical, because it was being used as a marijuana transshipment warehouse. Ironically, it was only discovered much later, administratively. When in use it was the nicest house in the neighborhood, and after a few years, for operational reasons the smugglers decided to move on. Before they left, they had a top notch remodeling job done on it, as well to erase any evidence. The family that moved in were amazed they got it at such a reasonable price, and so were the neighbors who finally got to see inside. When it was finally discovered by the police, they did a very detailed inspection, but since the mortgage was owned by the bank, they didn't confiscate it. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-02-05 14:04 |