San Diego
Thirty more suspects were added Thursday to a federal indictment charging two Peruvian nationals and their alleged U.S. distributors with operating a massive cocaine distribution ring in this country. The new indictments bring to 98 the number of people charged as a result of a federal investigation of a drug ring allegedly run by Augustin Fernando Maurtua and Jose Antonio Ledgard. Maurtua, 28, is suspected of heading the ring’s West Coast operations out of La Costa, while Ledgard, 27, was the purported East Coast chieftain operating out of Miami. The suspected ring members’ charges include possessing cocaine for sale, racketeering and continuing a criminal enterprise. Maurtua and Ledgard are being held without bail pending a detention hearing on Monday.
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