Chagra was active as a trafficker of marijuana and heroin beginning in the 1960s, and by the 1970s was a well-known drug trafficker operating out of Las Vegas and El Paso. In fact, he is described as having been "no less than the biggest marijuana smuggler in the country" during that time. According to George Knapp writing for "Las Vegas CityLife", he was "the undisputed marijuana kingpin of the Western world. He imported more high-grade ganja than anyone, tons at a time, planeload after planeload."