Houston-based elite team without borders tracks down world's most dangerous criminals

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The FBI's offering up to $5 million for help capturing or convicting Wilver Villegas-Palomino, the first fugitive from the Houston office added to the bureau's FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted list since the Railroad Killer in 1999.

Villegas-Palomino's charges include narcoterrorism. At least 80% of the cocaine on American streets comes largely from his labs in Colombia, according to the FBI.

"We use our top intelligence aspects to pinpoint locations of possibilities of where he might be, and we're going to work strongly with our partners to target those areas," FBI supervisory special agent Nick Zarro said.

Zarro's elite, Houston-based team includes 20 FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents, U.S. Marshals, and others.

"It was kind of perfect timing that we had the ability to go into the depths of Colombia and find not only the location of cocaine but where it's produced and how it's produced," Zarro said.

Years of work led to the National Liberation Army leader nicknamed "Carlos El Puerco" and his associates, one of whom was recently extradited to the U.S. to face charges.

It's a first in the narcoterrorism group's 60-year history.

"If we can take them all the way to the person responsible for producing the actual narcotic, we're going to target that person," Zarro said. "The DEA provides their expertise, ATF is providing theirs for weapons, the Marshals are there for extradition support, and we're here for the great intelligence piece."

The elite team targets the world's most dangerous criminals and their networks from our backyard to Africa, Europe, South and Central America, and Mexico.

With the DEA's expertise, the Houston team is on the front lines of the fight against fentanyl.

"The fentanyl is brought into major transshipment points such as Houston," DEA Houston Assistant Special Agent in Charge Lee Nash said. "They're staged here for distribution throughout the nation."

Fentanyl overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans between 18 and 45 years old. The majority of the fentanyl seized by the DEA, which shows up on our streets and in our homes and schools, comes from a single group just south of the border, the Jalisco Cartel.

"They employ some of their own operatives to distribute the narcotics here in the Houston area," Nash said. "They employ local street gangs to assist with the distribution and protection to ensure that their drug routes and stash houses remain safe and obscure from law enforcement."

In a recent U.S. federal crackdown on Jalisco Cartel associates, 750 were arrested, and a third of them were in Houston, according to the DEA.

Two Jalisco cartel associates were also convicted in November for their role in a Houston kidnapping.

"Our goal is always to take them farther," Zarro said. "If we can get to the top echelon, the head of the snake, as we like to call it, we will go after them."

The elite, Houston-based team is working to make Houston streets safer, one case, one massive shipment of deadly narcotics, and one transnational criminal network leader at a time.