Racehorses Seized in Raid on Drug Cartel Are Sold at Auction
From The New York Times
By MANNY FERNANDEZ
"Quarter horse racing experts said it was just a coincidence that so many of the horses being sold this week at an Oklahoma City auction had cartel in
their names. The word is often used to show that a horse is a descendant of a certain blood line. But prospective buyers uncertain who used to own the
racehorses had other names to give them a clue.
In addition to Coronita Cartel, Big Daddy Cartel, Cartel Mischief and Cartel Syndicate, there was Merry for Money and Breakoutthebullets.
The annual fall mixed sale at the Heritage Place auction house, which began Thursday and ends Saturday, has been one of the most unusual horse shows
Oklahoma has ever seen — more than 300 quarter horses the authorities said were used by a Mexican drug cartel to launder the proceeds of their
ruthless, multimillion-dollar drug operation were auctioned off by the federal government.
The horses were seized in June at an Oklahoma ranch run by José Treviño Morales, an older brother of one of the world’s most dangerous drug
traffickers, Miguel Ángel Treviño Morales, a leader of Mexico’s Zetas drug cartel. The Treviño brothers established a prominent organization in the
United States that bought, trained, bred and raced quarter horses, Tremor Enterprises, which allowed them to launder millions of dollars in drug
money, the authorities said. The horses, bred from champion lineage, won some of the industry’s biggest races.
José Treviño was arrested in the raid, one of a total of 15 people charged with money laundering. He and several defendants are awaiting trial in
federal court in Texas, but his brother Miguel Ángel Treviño, among those charged, remains at large in Mexico.
Both prosecutors and the defendants agreed to sell the horses, and the judge handling the case, Sam Sparks of Federal District Court, cited a number
reasons for ordering the sale, including the costs of boarding them and concern for the health of the horses, several of whom died after the raid.
“There’s no fear in buying any of these horses,” said Special Agent Mike Lemoine, a spokesman for the criminal investigation division of the Internal
Revenue Service, which seized the horses and was overseeing the government’s role in the auction. “This an agreed-upon sale.”
Indeed, the activities of the horses’ former caretakers appeared to have no effect on those attending the auction, and on the prices they were willing
to spend. Mr. Lemoine watched in amazement as the bidding on one of the sought-after mares, A Dash of Sweet Heat, steadily climbed.
“We’re at 450,” Mr. Lemoine said by phone late Thursday, as a fast-talking auctioneer could be heard in the background. “Now we’re at 550. 750. 850.
880 right now. 920. Hang on here.”
He had been referring not to hundreds of dollars, but to hundreds of thousands. A Dash of Sweet Heat ended up being bought for $1 million by Julianna
Hawn Holt, the wife of Peter Holt, the principal owner of the San Antonio Spurs.
Proceeds from the three-day auction will be placed in escrow until the case is resolved. Federal authorities expect to raise several million dollars
by the end of the day Saturday. If the defendants are convicted, Mr. Lemoine said, the proceeds will be deposited in the Treasury Department’s
forfeiture fund and will be used to finance law enforcement activities that include, naturally, fighting the war on the drugs"
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
\"Alea iacta est.\"
—Julius Caesar
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
