Terrell, in a pipeline for South American cocaine that passes through Dallas, is the first city to get the agency's second phase, MET II, which includes community programs. The MET effort in seven other Texas cities had modest success, resulting in 156 charges. But a single sweep in November in Terrell followed indictments of two-thirds that many. That bust was noteworthy for another reason. The high number of defendants to be prosecuted meant that some ended up before state judges and some, those identified as major players, targeted for federal court.
Little fish fall into the net and that is basically inevitable.
Not everyone applauds the DEA's efforts. Some criminologists say the federal government should be spending its resources to go after top echelons of drug cartels and leave street-level prosecutions to local and regional authorities. The Texas Rangers and such groups cannot go after the Colombian or Mexican drug dealers or the money launderers in the Cayman Islands. It is the U.S. Justice Department that has the integrity, the resources to be able to do that. And the question is what they are doing with them.