A year after 17 arrested in drug cartel, police still fighting meth problem

Suspects were bringing drugs from Mexico to La Crosse

It was considered a big victory against drug sellers in the La Crosse area, one year ago this week. 

A drug sweep led to charges against 17 people, and took hundreds of pounds of meth out of circulation. 

Tom Johnson from the regional MEG unit cautioned, at the time of the arrests, that leaders of a drug cartel would just find other people to replace those who had been captured, and that’s what has happened.

“These people have created a situation where there needs to be a certain amount of methamphetamine sold, so they don’t stop,” Johnson said. “They keep moving it and it just goes on and on. 

“It just has to be shuffled from one member of the enterprise to another. And that’s what we are constantly working on, trying to interrupt that supply chain.”

Of those 17 suspects, some have already have been sentenced.

“It’s showing the public that the matter’s been taken seriously but on the other hand it continues to go on,” Johnson said. “There’s been other significant methamphetamine arrests in the past several days.”

Johnson refers to cases such as Douazhong Vu, whose sister was among those charged last October with bringing Mexican meth to La Crosse through Minnesota. Vu has been arrested twice this year for possessing large amounts of the drug.