5,000-Pound Cocaine Seizure Spoils a ‘White’ Christmas

Stepped-up pressure on drug dealers doing business in the Los Angeles metropolitan area resulted in seizure of about 5,000 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $100 million and, separately, almost $3 million in drug cash about to be laundered, federal and local officials said Monday.

A Drug Enforcement Administration official said the weekend cocaine seizure was the second-largest bust in Southern California history. It was topped only by a September raid--the largest cocaine bust in the United States--in which police and drug agents seized more than 21 tons of cocaine at a warehouse in Sylmar.

In connection with the weekend raid, seven suspected drug traffickers were arrested in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

The cocaine seizure stemmed from a weeklong investigation during which law enforcement officers watched apparent drug transactions in the parking lot of a Baldwin Park hotel where three tractor-trailer trucks were parked, according to police and court documents.

When two of the tractor-trailer trucks left the parking lot of Howard Johnson’s Hotel and Restaurant on Dalewood Street in Baldwin Park and headed east, police said, officers stopped them near Victorville and found about 1,000 pounds of cocaine packed in cardboard boxes in each truck.

Officers followed other vehicles from the parking lot to houses in Hacienda Heights and Reseda. At one house, on Dolonita Avenue in Hacienda Heights, officers found more than 1,000 pounds of cocaine, court documents state.

All told, 4,987 pounds of the powdery white drug was seized, Anaheim Police Chief Joseph T. Molloy said. “They are not going to have a ‘white’ Christmas,” Molloy said of the suspects.

While Anaheim detectives developed the information and spearheaded the investigation, Molloy said his department received assistance from the DEA, the U.S. Customs Service, the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department, Huntington Beach police and the California Bureau of Narcotics.

Suspects were identified as Eduardo Alvarez, 31, of Chester, N.Y.; Ramon Quintana, 38, of Bergenfield, N.J.; Jose Bermudez Sosa, 42, of Prospect Park, N.J.; Guillermo Fernandez, 37, of Miami, Fla.; Jair DeJesus Mejia, 29 of Reseda; Hernan Aritizabal, 39, of Miami, and Jose Cabian Rodriguez, 42, of Whittier.

The suspects were booked into Anaheim City Jail to face federal charges of transportation and possession of cocaine for sale.

In addition to the cocaine, Molloy said, officers seized $20,000, which he described as being “pocket change” to major drug traffickers.

The seizure of approximately $2.75 million in drug cash in Los Angeles stemmed from surveillance efforts this month by U.S. customs agents and the Southeast Area Narcotic Enforcement Team.

SEANET, which includes the communities of Huntington Park, Bell, South Gate and Maywood, also played a major role in last September’s record Sylmar cocaine seizure.

The acting special customs agent in charge of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, Joseph Charles, said he viewed the big cash seizure as making a major impact in the money-laundering activities of Colombian drug dealers who are also under pressure in their own country.

“It’s a pretty good seizure,” he said. “Things have been relatively slow since September in (local) money-laundering seizures due to the upheaval in Colombia.”

The initial tip to SEANET came earlier this month, he said, leading to surveillance of a suspected narcotics trafficking operation at a Downey apartment house on Fostoria Street.

Surveillance then led to the seizure last Friday of the $2.75 million at another apartment house, on Priory Street in Bell Gardens, he said.

Approximately six large plastic bags were found in the apartment, containing $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills, Charles said.

Law enforcement representatives of local police and customs, which has jurisdiction in money-laundering crimes, believe that the Bell Gardens apartment was “a stash house where (the Colombians) collect money before it’s moved to different locations,” Charles said.

Arrested on suspicion of money laundering were: Bernardo Diaz, 40, of Downey, a house painter; Javier Canasas, 32, of South Gate, a New York real estate agent; Adolfo Suarez, 28, of Downey, no occupation; Reynaldo Garcia, 45, of Downey, no occupation; Miller Ramirez, 26, of Bell Gardens, no occupation; and Teresa Castano, 19, and her sister, Patricia, 20, both of Downey, domestics. All were scheduled to be arraigned late Monday in Municipal Court in downtown Los Angeles.

The Los Angeles County deputy district attorney assigned to the prosecutor’s major narcotics unit, Curtis Hazell, said some “fantastic ledgers” were seized as a result of the sweep.

“They were keeping records as fine as most businesses,” he said.

Hazell cautioned, however, about becoming too ecstatic over the arrests.

“It’s going to hurt them a little,” he said in a telephone interview. “But we haven’t smashed any organization. We’ve cut off a finger. Not one of the major fingers. We didn’t get the people who moved the dough.”

Times staff writer Dan Weikel in Orange County contributed to this story.