Tulsa Police Arrest Man Accused Of Trafficking Drugs For Mexican Cartel

Tulsa Police said a man admitted to being recruited by a Mexican Cartel to traffic drugs into the states.

The man told police he’d paid a smuggler thousands of dollars to help him into the United States and had only been here a couple of weeks before his arrest. Sgt. Zeller said the drug dealer told investigators he initially came to America to get a job at a restaurant but was quickly enticed by the easy money of the heroin trade.

Investigators with the Mingo Valley Division said Heroin drug deals are unique and easy to spot. 

“They will often have a customer meet them at a gas station or convenience store near a major intersection that's easy to find. They will pull on the lot tell them to follow them somewhere. Go through a neighborhood. Make some turns to make sure they're not being followed. Quickly do the deal and then they're on their way,” said Sgt. Zeller. 

Sgt. Zeller said he spotted a heroin drug deal going down Wednesday afternoon. He followed the dealer to Broken Arrow where he witnessed a second drug buy. He and others followed the suspect back to Tulsa before stopping him near 21st and Garnett.

"There's a lot of fentanyl cut into the heroin. It's very dangerous. Easy to overdose,” said Sgt. Zeller. “It's nice to get the hard drugs like that off the streets."

Zeller said the suspect had 50 grams of pre-packaged heroin and nearly $1,700 cash.

"Trafficking in heroin is 10 grams. Aggravated trafficking is 25 grams. So it's more than twice aggravated trafficking,” said Sgt. Zeller.

Sgt. Zeller said even though that’s a lot. people who have been dealing for a while who the cartel trusts may have pounds and kilos on them. 

He told investigators he paid a human smuggler $7,000 to bring him to America and within two weeks, had been recruited on social media to move drugs.

"He said the money he can make in America goes so much farther down there,” said Zeller.

He told police he could make more in a day or two with the cartels than a month working his regular job at a restaurant.

“He was definitely resentful. He said he was just trying to make money to send back to Mexico for his family. He as a child there,” said Sgt. Zeller. 

They booked him into jail for aggravated drug trafficking. Police are not releasing the man's name at this time for safety purposes.