Drug Suspect Killed by Pursuing Agents

A suspected cocaine trafficker was mortally wounded by gunfire from pursuing federal drug agents in Santa Fe Springs early Wednesday morning when his escape route was blocked by a passing freight train, authorities reported.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said that, despite his wounds, Elias Velasquez-Velasquez, 48, of Cerritos, rammed the agents’ car with his own, spun a U-turn and made a last, futile attempt to flee. But before he had driven more than a few yards, his car veered off the road, and arriving officers said they found him slumped dead behind the wheel.

35 Pounds of Cocaine

Bobby Sheppard, supervisor of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s intelligence unit in Los Angeles, said that several hours earlier, a woman named Lupe Herrera-Ortiz had been spotted by DEA agents as she drove from Mexico into the United States through San Ysidro, near San Diego.

Sheppard said intelligence sources indicated the woman’s van contained about 35 pounds of relatively pure cocaine, with a street value of approximately $2.5 million.

DEA and U.S. Customs agents said they kept the woman’s van under surveillance as she drove north to the Santa Fe Springs area, where she parked the vehicle at a service station at Carmenita Road and Excelsior Drive.

At about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday--as federal agents, sheriff’s deputies and officers from the Los Angeles Police Department watched from under cover--Velasquez-Velasquez drove up and the woman started to hand the drugs over to him, investigators said.

Deputies said that when a DEA agent approached on foot to arrest the pair, Velasquez-Velasquez jumped back into his car and tried--unsuccessfully--to run the agent down.

As the suspect sped away--north on Carmenita half a mile to Rosecrans Avenue, then east on Rosecrans toward La Mirada--DEA agents gave chase in their car.

“Then they had a stroke of luck,” Sheriff’s Deputy Lynda Edmonds said. “A train was blocking the road in front of the suspect’s vehicle.”

As Velasquez-Velasquez skidded to a halt and threw his car into reverse, “shots were fired,” Edmonds said. She said the suspect’s car rammed the agents’ vehicle, made a U-turn and headed east a short distance before veering off the road near Marquardt Avenue.

Pistol Found

Although a .25-caliber pistol was found beside Velasquez-Velasquez’s body in the car, it was not immediately determined whether he had fired any of the shots during the confrontation at the Southern Pacific railroad crossing, investigators said.

Herrera-Ortiz was taken into custody for questioning, officers said.

Sheppard said the cocaine was recovered.