$500 Million in Cocaine Seized : Nearly a Ton of Drug Taken in Orange County

Nearly a ton of cocaine--worth an estimated half billion dollars--was seized, $730,000 in cash was confiscated and 11 suspects were arrested in what Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Saturday is probably the largest cocaine bust in California history.

The raids at six homes in Orange County Friday night were the latest in a series of sweeps by federal and local narcotics agents that have resulted in the seizure of more than 5,000 pounds of cocaine in the Southern California-northwestern Mexico area in the last 10 days, Gates said.

Shift in Trafficking

Ted Hunter, agent in charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los Angeles District, said crackdowns in the Caribbean and a steadily increasing demand for cocaine in the Los Angeles area are accounting for a shift in narcotics trafficking from southern Florida to the West Coast.

“There are more seizures made in Miami,” Hunter said, “but California is fast closing the gap.”

Gates said LAPD narcotics officers and DEA agents, armed with warrants and assisted by officers from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Anaheim, Fullerton and Placentia police departments, swept down on the Orange County residences at about 9:45 p.m. Friday, arresting 10 of the 11 suspects.

Neighbors in the pleasant, middle-income areas where the raids took place said the narcotics officers apparently used unmarked cars and made the arrests without incident--because nobody interviewed knew the arrests had taken place or recalled seeing anything unusual Friday night.

The adult suspects were booked at the Orange County Jail on suspicion of possession of cocaine for sale. They were being held Saturday in lieu of $4 million bail apiece.

Location of Raids

The 1,784 pounds of cocaine was seized at two apartments in Anaheim--one at 2390 Willowbrook Lane, the other at 9562 Ball Road. The money was recovered at a home at 231 Preakness Court in Placentia. No weapons were recovered, Gates said.

Clara Rubia Perez, 22, a Venezuelan, was arrested at the Willowbrook Lane address. Onelia Rita Arboleda, 24, a Colombian, was arrested at the apartment on Ball Road. Juan Perez Sanchez, 29, an Ecuadoran, and two Colombians, Dimate Fabio Ardila, 41, and Florinda Prad Suarez, 25, were arrested at the Preakness Court address.

Five other suspects were Colombians--Uldarico Cabuya, 34, who was arrested at a home at 814 Cornwall Drive in Anaheim; Elkin Guaren, 28, who was taken into custody at an apartment at 1700 W. Cerritos Drive in Fullerton, and Ruiz Gonzalo, 29, Blas Sanchez Rodriguez, 43, and Maria Sanchez Pinzol, 24, who were arrested at an apartment at 2008 Deerpark Place in Fullerton.

The 11th person arrested was a juvenile. That arrest was made by Anaheim police, who refused to identify the suspect or reveal where the arrest was made.

Three other juveniles found at suspects’ homes were placed in the care of relatives. Arboleda’s 2-year-old son was placed in the custody of the Orange County Social Services Department.

Silent on Details

Gates and Hunter declined Saturday to discuss further details about the case.

“We’re not going to talk about the investigation at all--we can’t--because of the sensitivity (of the case) and because of the possible danger to some of our officers,” Gates told a news conference at the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Facilities building on East 6th Street.

Asked if this meant that undercover officers were still in the field working on the case, Gates replied, “I don’t want to even say that.”

Hunter described the 1,784-pound haul as “astronomical,” but Gates added with a note of regret that “while it will slow (trafficking here) down a little, there’s still so much in storage, waiting to get here.

“My people have estimated, over and over again, that we seize about 10% of what’s coming in,” Gates said. “With the increase we’re seeing, I hope that it’s more than 10%, but I fear it’s not.”

Big Haul in Tijuana

On Friday, DEA officials announced that Mexican authorities had confiscated at least 2,400 pounds of cocaine in Tijuana in what probably was the largest seizure of narcotics ever along the international border.

The DEA said Thursday’s haul resulted from the arrest two days earlier of two women who were trying to smuggle 80 pounds of cocaine across the border in a sports car.

On March 26, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies seized more than 400 pounds of cocaine a few hours after Los Angeles police and DEA agents confiscated 200 pounds of the drug. A raid the week before had netted local narcotics officers another 180 pounds.

Gates said additional seizures here raised the total in and around Southern California for the last 10 days to more than 2 1/2 tons. That’s more than twice the 873 kilograms (1,920.6 pounds) seized by federal and local lawmen here in the entire 1984-85 fiscal year that ended last September.

Record Bust in Miami

The largest individual seizure of cocaine in U.S. history, 3,243 pounds, took place at the Miami airport in March, 1982.

The publicized value of confiscated cocaine can vary widely, depending on how the prices are quoted.

Agents said that while the wholesale price in the Los Angeles area runs between $35 and $40 a gram, the retail “street price”--after the drug has been adulterated or “cut” with other materials--can vary between $100 and $625 a gram.