Tulsa, OK- According to the US Attorney's office, Operation Coronado netted eight people, charged with participating in a conspiracy to bring cocaine and methamphetamine into the Tulsa area from Mexico between June and October 2009.
The suspects are Ruben Garcia, Leonel Ledezma, Oscar Palacios, Juan Antonio Martinez, Gilberto Rivera, Alejandro Romero, Rubi Garcia and Mauricio Banuelos.
Steve Whitaker, with John 3:16 Mission, says it's too dangerous for anyone affiliated with drug traffickers to come forward to talk about it.
"This has been going on for a long time," said Whitaker.
While he's not surprised to hear of the latest Tulsa drug bust, Whitaker is shocked at a 60-percent surge in shelter occupants.
"For our shelter and other shelters to be full, something's going on," he said.
He says a lot of the people who enter the doors of John 3:16 are addicted to drugs, thanks in part, to drug cartels.
This latest arrest includes Mexican nationals associated with the La Familia cartel who, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, were conspiring to bring cocaine and meth into Tulsa.
"La Familia was just one of the groups that they know was responsible but that doesn't mean there are not possibly connected to other cartels," said Mark Woodward, with the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
Nationwide, there have been 1,000 arrests under Operation Coronado and 300 last month alone- spanning nineteen states.
We asked why Tulsa and Oklahoma City are considered hot-spots for this type of activity.
"Oklahoma's a transhipment point because of our highway system," said Woodward.
Those highways include I-44, I-35 and I-40.
