Officers and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and local law-enforcement agencies fanned out across central Ohio yesterday to shut down an alleged drug-trafficking ring. The sweep in the pre-dawn hours resulted in 13 arrests, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Officers and agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Internal Revenue Service and local law-enforcement agencies fanned out across central Ohio yesterday to shut down an alleged drug-trafficking ring.

The sweep in the pre-dawn hours resulted in 13 arrests, the U.S. attorney�s office said.

Each person was charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute cocaine. Six of them also were charged with conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and one also was charged with money laundering.

The charges were filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, but the records of the arrests and charges were sealed, and people in the law-

enforcement agencies would not provide more details. The indictments say that the drug ring has operated for more than three years. Twelve of those arrested are from central Ohio; one is from Toledo.

Among them was Liborio Alcauter, 47, of 6431 Sunbury Rd. in Blendon Township near Westerville, who is accused of a role in the cocaine conspiracy. He is the owner of La Michoacana Mexican markets, a chain of grocery stores.

Son Fernando Alcauter said that all 10 of his father�s stores were raided.

Liborio Alcauter told The Dispatch in a 2003 interview that he had immigrated to the United States from Mexico in 1985. Alcauter started his grocery business in 2000 with one store on the West Side and had expanded to five stores by 2006. That�s the year he opened La Michoacana at 2175 Morse Rd., a 16,000-square-foot building that had housed a Sun TV store. The grocery includes a restaurant and butcher shop.

Fernando Alcauter said yesterday that most of the La Michoacana stores were able to reopen in the afternoon. He said he had not seen his father, a U.S. citizen, since the arrest and was awaiting a meeting with his attorney.

Other law-enforcement agencies involved in the raid were the Columbus police; the State Highway Patrol; the Franklin County sheriff�s office; the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Kathy A. Enstrom, a special agent with the IRS, said in a news release: �By following the money trail, IRS special agents helped to disrupt and dismantle this major drug-trafficking organization that attempted to conceal the true source of their money from the government.�

kgray@dispatch.com



@reporterkathy