6 Jailed in Alleged Bid to Purchase 220 Pounds of Cocaine

A reverse sting operation run out of two San Clemente hotels and involving 220 pounds of cocaine and $789,399 in cash has led to the arrest of six people, the San Diego office of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said Friday.

A DEA spokesman said the agency hopes that the arrests will break a cocaine distribution ring with links to Northern California, Oklahoma and Colorado that the DEA believes has sold more than a ton of cocaine in the last year and half.

The arrests were made Monday and Tuesday but weren’t announced until Friday, in part because more arrests are expected, DEA spokesman Ron D’Ulisse said.

The arrests in San Clemente are part of an overall investigation involving 13 other people who were charged in a Tulsa federal court with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine, U.S. Atty. Layn Phillips told the Associated Press in Tulsa.

He said as many as 30 other people could be arrested in spinoff investigations in other states.

Posed as Sellers

Posing as cocaine sellers, rather than buyers, undercover DEA agents in San Diego began the investigation two months ago, agreeing to sell 220 pounds of cocaine for $1.5 million to a distribution ring allegedly led by Eugene Russell Esposito of Santa Cruz.

The agents met with the buyers several times and passed themselves off as high rollers, at one time using a San Clemente-area mansion to impress Esposito.

Finally, the DEA agents rented rooms at the Ramada Inn and San Clemente Inn as the locations to culminate the drug deal.

On Monday night, Esposito and partner John Brant Sankey arrived at one of the rooms, where DEA agents showed them the high-grade cocaine.

Esposito and Sankey allegedly agreed to buy it, then telephoned three other associates and told them to make a $789,399 partial payment to DEA agents waiting at the other hotel.

Brief Foot Chase

Instead of receiving the cocaine, Esposito and Sankey, who lives in Pittsburgh, Pa., were arrested. The three men who handed over the money--Lester Thomas Smith, 26, of Danville; Douglas Harper Berry, 22, and Darrel Jackson, both of Oakland--were arrested after a brief foot chase.

All were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to possess cocaine and conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute.

Under the 1986 Drug Abuse Act, the suspects face a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison because the alleged transaction involved more than 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of cocaine. They also face fines of up to $4 million.

On Tuesday, the DEA arrested Bridgett Johnson, 31, of La Jolla in connection with the case, on suspicion of conspiracy to possess cocaine.

All of the suspects are being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in downtown San Diego. D’Ulisse said the multi-agency investigation included the DEA, FBI, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Customs Service, Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and San Clemente Police Department.

“It probably won’t make a significant dent,” said Charles E. Hill, special agent in charge of the DEA’s San Diego division, which conducted the reverse sting, its largest ever.

“The price of cocaine is low right now . . . and there is plenty of it on the market right now.”

Among those arrested at the direction of the U.S. attorney’s office in Tulsa were Gabriel Franco Carvajal, 37, of Peru and Boris Olarte, 24, of Colombia. Both were taken into custody Wednesday in Panama and face extradition to Tulsa. The two men reportedly offered to sell undercover agents 1,200 pounds of cocaine that they alleged was part of a stockpile of thousands of pounds at an airport warehouse in Colombia.