Carlos Landín-Martinez

Ex-Mexican police commander now believed to be a high-ranking member of a cocaine cartel was arrested after a U.S. drug agent happened to spot him in a supermarket buying a watermelon,Carlos Landín-Martinez, 52, collected taxes on drugs smuggled by smaller groups to markets north of the Rio Grande for at least two years on the cartel’s behalf. Landin-Martinez is a former police commander who is believed to have switched sides and become second-in-command for the Reynosa, Mexico, leg of the cartel, Glaspy said. He is believed to have collected "pisos," or tolls, that the cartel gets from smaller drug gangs crossing through their turf. Reynosa is across the Rio Grande from Hidalgo. With his purported ties to the powerful drug-trafficking organization, authorities took no chances Monday, securing the downtown courthouse
Federal agents cordoned off nearby parking lots as bailiffs individually screened more than 30 family members that arrived to watch the court proceedings.
Not far from the federal courthouse at the McAllen Police Department, where Landín-Martinez is expected to be held throughout trial, a Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team stood on call Monday night to ensure the security of the building, police Chief Victor Rodriguez said.
“We are obviously assisting the U.S. Marshals Office in housing him here,” Rodriguez said. “And we will deploy all the security we can during the trial period.”
Landín-Martinez and 13 co-defendants face multiple counts of conspiracy, narcotics smuggling and money laundering in a federal indictment issued in May 2007.
Authorities apprehended Landín-Martinez on July 14, when an off-duty agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spotted him shopping for watermelon at the H.E.B. store on North 10th Street, south of Nolana.
The federal indictment against Landín-Martinez and his 13 co-defendants links the men to two specific drug busts between January 2005 and January 2007, including an August 2005 incident in which U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended a man attempting to smuggle nearly 90 pounds of cocaine through Anzalduas County Park.
Throughout the period, prosecutors say Landín-Martinez oversaw a figurative toll plaza in Reynosa that allowed such drug shipments from smaller groups through Gulf Cartel territory for a price.
“The individual in charge of collecting the taxes was Carlos Landín-Martinez,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Patricia Cook Profit said in court Monday.
But Landín-Martinez’s attorneys argued the government had relied too heavily on unreliable drug smugglers in building their case. Of the six co-defendants in custody, four have pleaded guilty to the charges and may testify during the trial.
One of Landín-Martinez’s co-defendants, Luis Martinez-Robledo, has disputed the accusations against him and will stand trial with the accused kingpin.
“All they have is a bunch of people caught with drugs trying to make a deal,” said Landín-Martinez’s attorney, Oscar R. Alvarez. “There’s no evidence. Everything is street rumors and gossip.”
Taxing traffic from smaller smuggling groups has become a lucrative side business for the Gulf Cartel in recent years.
But the income has sparked internal political struggles within the group and spawned several external challenges to the cartel’s dominance in the region.
In light of those threats and last week’s clashes between cartel members and Mexican federal authorities in Rio Bravo and Reynosa, security around the federal courthouse and McAllen Police Department is expected to remain tight throughout the two-week trial.