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TEXAS ECONOMY
ZETAS DRUG CARTEL
Going to work
Feds arrest suspected enforcer
More at work in state compared to nation ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — The strength of the Texas economy combined with a growing labor force contributed to a 5.5 percent March unemployment rate, the Texas Work-
force Commission reported Friday. The latest seasonally adjusted jobless rate for Texas compares to a 6.7 percent nationwide jobless rate during March. Statewide unemployment
stood at 5.7 percent in January and February, according to the TWC. The Texas jobless rate was 6.4 percent in March 2013. The Midland area had the lowest jobless rate last month, at 2.7 percent. Neigh-
boring Odessa had a 3.3 percent jobless rate for March. In contrast, the McAllenEdinburg-Mission area had the state’s highest unemployment rate during March
See JOBLESS RATE PAGE 11A
FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLOSION
FIRST ANNIVERSARY
Photo by Shely Tauber/The Daily Texas | AP
Karissa Kaluza, left, embraces her boyfriend Clint McHargue during a memorial to honor the 15 killed in a fertilizer plant explosion one year ago in West, on Thursday. Kaluza’s cousin, first responder Jimmy Matus, died when he went to assist after the explosion.
West honors 15 killed in year-ago explosion By EMILY SCHMALL ASSOCIATED PRESS
WEST — Rev. Terry McElrath heard the deafening boom. The pastor spun around and saw a column of smoke billow-
ing into the sky above his small Texas town. He immediately thought, “Somebody has died tonight.” A spiraling fire inside the fertilizer plant in West had ignited 34 tons
of ammonium nitrate, creating an explosion so powerful that it killed 15 people, leveled nearby homes and schools, and left a crater where West Fertilizer Co. once stood. Debris was strewn miles
away. “It’s hard to believe that in one moment, so much damage could be done,” McElrath told hundreds of people
See EXPLOSION PAGE 11A
By CÉSAR G. RODRIGUEZ THE ZAPATA TIMES
LAREDO — A suspected Zetas drug cartel enforcer operating in Laredo and tasked with recovering drug debts has been arrested on a kidnapping charge, federal authorities announced Wednesday. The criminal complaint alleges that Raul Ochoa Perez, 41, “is a known drug trafficker affiliated with the Zetas.” “Ochoa Perez is known to facilitate U.S.based operations for the distribution of narcotics through Texas and other parts of the United States. Perez is known to utilize violence to recover drug bets on behalf of the Zetas,” the complaint filed Jan. 14 states. Ochoa had been wanted since January. Special Agent Michelle Lee, an FBI spokeswoman, said he surrendered to the FBI voluntarily and without incident Tuesday. He made an initial appearance in a Laredo federal court Wednesday morning. On Jan. 13, Ochoa and a man were going to meet for breakfast at a local Taco Palenque to talk about “work,” the complaint states. Ochoa, who was driving a 2011 Chevrolet Silverado, drove him south on Interstate 35 toward international bridge II. Ochoa then allegedly brandished a handgun and pointed it at the man. He told him in Spanish, “If you move, I’ll kill you,” the complaint states. Fearing for his life, the man did not move, authorities allege, and the two drove into Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
RAUL OCHOA PEREZ Ochoa drove to a Southeast Nuevo Laredo neighborhood known as “Infonavit” to pick up a man identified in court records as Plato. Ochoa then drove Plato and the man to a machine shop in Colonia Morelos in Central Nuevo Laredo. An unidentified man brought the keys for the shop and opened the door for the men. The hostage was taken to a restroom, where Plato and the unidentified man began kicking and punching him while he had his hands tied behind his back with a string, the complaint states. Ochoa watched the beating and made a call on his cell phone, telling a person: “Don’t worry boss. We’ll kill him,” the complaint alleges. Plato told the hostage they would kill his family “even if they got the money,” the complaint adds. The assailants also allegedly placed a handgun inside his mouth and held a knife to his throat. “The victim was told repeatedly that he would be killed and cut into pieces,” the complaint states. The alleged incident
See ZETAS
PAGE 11A
WAR ON DRUGS
Former pot growers fueling US heroin invasion By NICK MIROFF THE WASHINGTON POST
TEPACA DE BADIRAGUATO, MEXICO — The surge of cheap heroin spreading in $4 hits across rural America can be traced back to the remote valleys of the northern Sierra Madre.
With the wholesale price of marijuana falling — driven in part by decriminalization in sections of the United States — Mexican drug farmers are filling their fields with opium poppies. Mexican heroin is flooding north as U.S. authorities trying to contain an epidem-
ic of prescription painkiller abuse have tightened controls on synthetic opiates such as hydrocodone and Oxycontin. As the pills become more costly and difficult to obtain, Mexican trafficking organizations have found new markets for heroin in places such as Winchester, Va., and Brattleboro,
Vt., where, until recently, needle use for narcotics was rare or unknown. Farmers in the storied “Golden Triangle” region of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, which has produced the country’s most notorious gangsters and biggest marijuana harvests, say they are no longer planting the crop.
Its wholesale price has collapsed in the past five years, from $100 per kilogram to less than $25. “It’s not worth it anymore,” said Rodrigo Silla, 50, a lifelong cannabis farmer who said he couldn’t remember the last time his family and others in their tiny hamlet gave up growing
mota. “I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.” Growers from this area and as far afield as Central America are sowing their plots with opium poppies, and large-scale operations are turning up in places
See HEROIN
PAGE 11A