Arrests, Drug Seizures Broke Ring, Police Say

Authorities announced Wednesday that they had broken a narcotics ring that operated in areas of four states--including Orange County in California--arresting five men and seizing more than five pounds of cocaine during an eight-month period.

Police spokesman Terry Jones said the drug ring was active in Colorado, California, Nebraska and Florida.

He said the latest arrests took place Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Guillermo (Willie) Guerrero, 32, of the Miami area was taken into custody Tuesday night on charges of trying to sell undercover agents in Aurora a kilogram of cocaine for $40,000. Guerrero was taken before a U.S. magistrate in Denver on Wednesday and faces federal charges.

Omar Joudah, 34, was arrested Wednesday at an Aurora home, Jones said.

The other three men, all believed to be part of the same drug ring, were arrested in Orange County, Denver and Aurora, Jones added.

The earlier arrests took place between November, 1985, and April 16, he said.

Gustavo Montoya, 24, of New York, was arrested in Denver last November after conveying four ounces of cocaine to an undercover federal drug agent, Jones said, and is serving a federal prison sentence.

Paul Reida, 26, of La Vista, Neb., was arrested in Aurora on March 22 after he allegedly came to Aurora to buy cocaine, Jones said. Agents seized $26,000 and an automobile from Reida, he said.

John Neel, 44, who lived both in Orange County and the Denver area, was arrested April 16 after allegedly delivering a kilogram of cocaine to undercover agents in Orange County, Jones said.

Jones said Aurora police, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the Internal Revenue Service worked together on the case. Additional arrests are expected, he said.