"Poom! The little cup [drink]! Poom!" Cardona-Ramirez boasted on a federal wiretap planted at a cartel hide-out on Orange Blossom Loop in Laredo. His words were translated into English for U.S. court officials. "I filled it with blood and poom! I dedicated it to La Santisima Muerte" -- St. Death.
Here in Georgia, the case of the man held in the basement on East Fork Shady Drive is indicative of how "these traffickers unleash ruthless forms of violence in order to protect and defend their drugs and cash," said Rodney G. Benson, DEA special agent-in-charge in Atlanta.
Jay S. Mortenson, also a DEA special agent, said officers surrounded the house after the hostage's wife phoned them from Rhode Island. She said cartel members came up with a ruse to have him bring the title of a newly purchased vehicle to Georgia, and when he arrived in July they abducted him over a $300,000 drug debt.
When officers burst inside they found the husband, Oscar Reynoso, in the basement, chained at his ankles. His mouth was gagged with black tape.
Unbound, Reynoso began talking. Mortenson said he told officers he delivered the title to the cartel members at a Waffle House restaurant in Duluth, Ga., and then was driven to East Fork Shady Drive. Taken into the kitchen, he was surrounded; one of the assailants pointed him out as "the thief who stole the money."
Three men who tried to flee the house during the raid face criminal charges in connection with the abduction and extortion scheme.
In addition, Reynoso was charged with distributing cocaine, after he admitted he had dealt drugs and owed the money to the cartel, Mortenson said.
The home at 755 East Fork Shady Drive was vacant because the owners had moved and could not find a buyer. Today it stands as a reminder to Beaver Hills residents of how far the drug wars in Mexico have come.
"I hope we don't have anything more like this," said Barbara Park, who lives across the street in a cul-de-sac. "It was pretty scary, and we have a nice neighborhood."
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richard.serrano@latimes.com
sam.quinones@latimes.com
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latimes.com/siege
Danger zone
Previous coverage of Mexico's drug war is available online.
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Richard A. Serrano reporting from Lilburn, Ga
Sam Quinones reporting from San Diego
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
ATLANTA
A Dominican man who allegedly owed money to drug traffickers was tortured for days in a suburban home until police freed him.
TEXAS
When drug money hidden in a spare tire disappeared, gunmen hauled the tow-truck driver to Mexico, where he was tortured and interrogated, then released.
CHULA VISTA
A rogue faction of the Arellano Felix cartel has moved to suburban San Diego, where it has carried out as many as a dozen slayings and 20 kidnappings.
LAS VEGAS
Several men disguised as police officers snatched a 6-year-old boy in an apparent attempt to recover drug money from his grandfather.
