Alleged drug cartel kingpins indicted

NEW YORK, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- Ten alleged Mexican drug cartel leaders were among 43 people indicted after a probe into the Mexican drug organizations, the U.S. Justice Department said.

The 12 indictments against the 43 defendants were unsealed Wednesday and Thursday in New York and Chicago, the department said in a news release outlining the multi-agency effort.

The alleged leaders and other members of Mexico's drug cartels were charged with operating criminal enterprises or participating in in international drug trafficking conspiracies.

"Breaking up these dangerous cartels and stemming the flow of drugs, weapons and cash across the Southwest border is a top priority for this Justice Department," U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said. "The cartels whose alleged leaders are charged today (Thursday) constitute multibillion dollar networks that funnel drugs onto our streets and what invariably follows is more crime and violence in our communities."

The United States and Mexico built a bilateral cooperation "to allow us to combine our investigative and legal resources to dismantle these transnational drug organizations and bring the leaders to justice," said Mexican Attorney General Eduardo Medina Mora. "We can only protect the right of our societies to live in peace and harmony through our governments' mutual trust and shared responsibility."

The four Brooklyn and eight Chicago indictments combined charge that between 1990 and December 2008, cartel leaders were responsible for importing and distributing more than 200 tons of cocaine and large quantities of heroin into the United States, as well as the bulk of smuggling from the United States to Mexico of more than $5.8 billion in cash from narcotics sales in the United States and Canada.