A federal judge on Wednesday ordered a Little Rock man held until trial after federal authorities said the man met face-to-face with a top Mexican drug cartel figure and lined up large shipments of cocaine into the United States for distribution in central Arkansas.
Emmanuel “Chi Chi” Ilo, 34, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe at the federal courthouse in Little Rock shortly after the judge ordered one of Ilo’s co-defendants, Manuel “Manny” Garza, to also remain jailed while his case proceeds.
Both men face charges in an investigation that federal authorities say disrupted a drug-trafficking conspiracy responsible for pumping hundreds of pounds of cocaine into central Arkansas from Mexico via southern Texas.
The cocaine flowed from the Gulf Cartel, which federal prosecutors last month said was responsible for about a third of all cocaine moved into the U.S. from Mexico.
In particular, federal authorities have described the top of the conspiracy involving Garza and Ilo as a “family business” of cocaine distribution headed by a high-ranking cartel lieutenant, Idalia Ramos Rangel.
Ramos Rangel, who is known as “La Tia” or The Aunt as well as “Big Momma,” directed the cocaine trafficking from her home in Matamoros, Mexico, federal authorities say. She was indicted along with Ilo and Garza and remains a fugitive.
During Wednesday’s hearings, an FBI agent testified that Ramos Rangel’s organization was responsible for “tons” of cocaine and marijuana flowing to places such as New York, Chicago, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Memphis, St. Louis and Little Rock.
FBI special agent James Woodie also revealed that a second indictment is forthcoming that would likely name Ilo and others accused of trafficking “high quality, hydroponic” marijuana.
One of the targets of the second indictment, he said, is Ilo’s fiancee, Tauhearah Muhammad, who had testified earlier in the day and was seated in the gallery at the time. Muhammad, who has not been charged, remained in the courtroom during Ilo’s hearing but left quickly afterward.
The hearing took much of the afternoon and revolved around Woodie’s testimony that investigators believe Ilo received 33 to 66 pounds of cocaine a week from the drug cartel for 2 ½ to three years.
Investigators began looking into Ilo, and later the Ramos Rangel conspiracy, after Little Rock police detectives came across Ilo’s name while investigating a local man accused of drug dealing.
FBI agents also learned that Mohammed “Mo” Martinez, one of Ramos Rangel’s sons and an inmate at the federal prison in Forrest City, had been recruiting prisoners to distribute cocaine for his mother.
According to the indictment, Martinez, who was serving a nearly 23-year prison sentence on drug charges, recruited Ilo and another inmate, Mervin “Slim” Johnson, as early as 2008 while they were housed together in the Forrest City prison.
After his release in 2010, federal authorities say Ilo began distributing the cartel’s cocaine in central Arkansas. Woodie testified Wednesday that at Martinez’s arrangement, Ilo met in person with Ramos Rangel in Mexico.
Border records showed someone using Ilo’s name and date of birth re-entered the United States at the time of the September 2010 meeting. And Ilo and Martinez discussed the meeting over the phone, Woodie testified.
Federal authorities were able to intercept many of Martinez’s discussions of drug-trafficking affairs because he used the prison phone and e-mail systems, which are constantly monitored. The FBI also later tapped two of Ilo’s cell phones.
After the meeting, Ilo went on to become a major supplier of cocaine in Little Rock for several street gangs, including the West Side Pirus, the agent said.
The business was lucrative but Ilo also ran into trouble. For instance, one of his drug houses was robbed of $300,000 and $200,000 worth of cocaine, Woodie said.
During questioning by Ilo’s attorney Willard Proctor, Woodie acknowledged that the only evidence of the robbery was what Ilo and others said over the wiretapped phones. There wasn’t any police report of the robbery, he said.
But Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon later asked the agent: “Do drug dealers report to police when they’ve been robbed of large amounts of drugs and money?”
“They do not,” Woodie replied.
In ordering Ilo’s detention, Volpe said his decision was a “razor thin” call because he didn’t believe Ilo was a flight risk or a danger to the community.
Ilo, who has been jailed since his arrest in early May, asked through his attorney Wednesday to be placed in the Gyst House, a Little Rockbased substance abuse treatment facility instead of jail.
But Volpe, who commended the program, said he worried that Ilo would “infect” others at the facility with his willingness to stay involved in criminal activity.
Volpe gave different reasons for detaining Garza, whom authorities have accused of being a “load manager,” monitoring and following loads of cocaine hidden in semi-trucks and other vehicles that carried the drugs around the United States.
During his hearing, Garza, 32, testified that he hadn’t crossed the U.S.-Mexico border since 2000.
But records introduced by the government during the hearing showed that someone with Garza’s name and date of birth had crossed the border numerous times since 1999.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 06/27/2013