A year-long investigation into Jovita’s in South Austin results in the arrest of 18 people for trafficking Mexican black tar heroin and the restaurant being shut down.

Early in the morning on June 21st, law enforcement agents burst into Jovita’s and adjacent buildings in South Austin, seizing cash and heroin, and arresting the owners. For a full year, the FBI and local police had been carrying out an investigation into drug dealing occurring in and around the restaurant. And finally, the game was over for owner Amado Pardo, some of his family and others involved in the deals.

While some of the players had been suspected of trafficking heroin for decades, there was never enough proof to make the charges stick. But finally, FBI and local law enforcement had enough hard evidence to shut the place down.

Three of those arrested were said to be part of the Texas Syndicate. This is a prison gang that recruits inmates on the inside who then carry out the work of the gang once they are out on the street again. The Texas Syndicate is known to work closely with Mexican drug cartels to smuggle drugs into the US and then distribute them into communities. Amado Pardo had previously spent eight years in prison for killing a man during a drug deal.

Was Jovita’s contributing to Rising Heroin Statistics Among Young Texans?

Those in Texas can be grateful to law enforcement for shutting down this operation. According to the annual report Substance Abuse Trends in Texas, heroin abuse by the young has been increasing. What’s more, the proportion of young people going to rehab for heroin is greater than ever before.

“Young people in Texas are being hit hard by the heroin trade,” observed Derry Hallmark, Director of Admissions at Narconon Arrowhead in Canadian, Oklahoma. “In 2011, forty-five percent of those being admitted to rehab for heroin addiction were in their twenties but just six years before, it was thirty-five percent. And those dying with heroin in their bodies are getting younger. In just two years, the average age dropped from 39 to 35.”

Heroin problems involving youth escalated several years ago when “cheese” hit communities around Dallas. Cheese is a mixture of Tylenol PM (diphenhydramine) and heroin, finely chopped up so that the mixture resembles parmesan cheese. The addition of diphenhydramine makes it possible to inhale the sticky black tar heroin that commonly comes from Mexico. At first, dealers were not telling young people that it contained heroin. When some of them began to overdose and die, the news finally got out. Cheese is still a problem around the Dallas area. Across Texas, prices for heroin keep sliding downward as well.

Turning the Trend Around

“For more than a decade, we have been helping Texans recover from addiction to heroin, alcohol and other drugs from our location just a few hours north of Dallas,” commented Mr. Hallmark. “We have also reached many thousands of Texas schoolchildren with our drug education curriculum as well. For more Texans to turn away from abusing drugs, you have to reduce demand and this is how it is done.”

The Narconon anti-substance abuse classes have been proven to change young people’s minds about using drugs. “When teens and young adults learn the effects that drugs have, more of them decide not to use drugs than if they are just told to say no,” added Mr. Hallmark. The Narconon curriculum explains how drugs and alcohol cause mental and physical harm and how having and achieving goals is far more rewarding than using drugs.

For more information about the Narconon Arrowhead drug rehabilitation program or their drug education curriculum, call 1-800-468-6933.