Feds arrest 171 suspected members of drug cartel in New England, including 49 in Mass.

"The Drug Enforcement Administration announced the arrest of 171 suspected members of the Sinaloa Cartel - which the State Department designated as a terrorist organization earlier this year - in New England in August. Between Aug. 25 and 29, the DEA arrested 617 suspects across 23 field divisions nationwide and seized over $11 million dollars in currency, $1.6 million in assets, 420 firearms, 714,707 counterfeit pills, and thousands of kilograms of other drugs:"

""The Sinaloa Cartel remains one of the most significant threats to public safety, public health and our national security," the DEA wrote in a statement Monday. "These results demonstrate the full weight of DEA's commitment to protecting the American people," DEA Administrator Terrance Cole wrote in the statement. "Every kilogram of poison seized, every dollar stripped from the cartels, and every arrest we make represents lives saved and communities defended. DEA will not relent until the Sinaloa Cartel is dismantled from top to bottom.""

Law enforcement arrested 617 suspects nationwide between Aug. 25 and 29, including 171 suspected Sinaloa Cartel members in New England. Nationwide seizures included over $11 million in currency, $1.6 million in assets, 420 firearms, 714,707 counterfeit pills, and thousands of kilograms of fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine, and heroin. In New England authorities seized 244 kilograms of drugs, 22,115 counterfeit pills, $1.3 million, and 33 guns. New England arrests were allocated across Connecticut (64), Massachusetts (49), New Hampshire (33), Maine (11), Rhode Island (10), and Vermont (3). A Franklin, New Hampshire probe led to 27 arrests and seizures from Lawrence, Massachusetts. DEA officials called the cartel a major threat and pledged to continue dismantling it.

Read at Boston.com