One-Man Narcotics Detail Breaks Up Cocaine Ring

A four-month investigation spearheaded by the one-man narcotics detail of the tiny Bell-Cudahy Police Department broke up a major cocaine ring and resulted in the arrests of 30 suspects and the seizure of 60 pounds of the illicit drug, authorities said today.

The street value of the cocaine was placed at about $6 million.

Bell-Cudahy Detective Jerry Guzzetta said records indicated that the organization, which wholesaled to street dealers, had made at least $50 million in sales.

Guzzetta, the sole narcotics investigator in the 50-man department, named Abraham Rojas, 51, a Colombian national in the U.S. on a business visa, as the head of the ring.

“We believe that this Rojas was a major (cocaine business) connection between Colombia, Miami and Los Angeles,” the detective said.

He said Rojas, who lived in an Anaheim condominium, used a Fullerton currency exchange agency as a front for the wholesale drug operation.

Rojas was being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail, police said.

Also arrested on a variety of narcotics counts were 13 other Colombian nationals, 6 Jamaicans, 5 Cubans, 3 Mexicans and 2 U.S. citizens. Guzzetta said they were picked up in a weeklong series of raids that ended Tuesday.

He said the investigation and arrests could not have succeeded without the cooperation a number of other local and federal law enforcement agencies.

Arrest warrants were served in Bell, Huntington Park, Los Angeles, Gardena, Anaheim, Fullerton, La Puente and Palm Desert. Guzzetta said that in addition to the cocaine, officers confiscated $300,000 in cash, $80,000 worth of jewelry, an arsenal of 20 firearms, a number of portable two-way radios, mobile phones and other sophisticated communications equipment, and 15 automobiles, including a 1985 Porsche, a 1985 BMW and a late-model Mercedes-Benz.