$100 Million in Cocaine, 17 Drug Ring Suspects Seized in Raids

The gangland-style killing of a suspected drug dealer in Glendale last July touched off an investigation that led this week to the arrest of 17 people and the seizure of 812 pounds of cocaine, with an estimated street value of more than $100 million, authorities said Wednesday.

The smashing of the drug ring that Glendale police say operated throughout Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties was the latest evidence of a huge surge in cocaine dealing in Southern California.

The 17 defendants, ranging in age from 20 to 48 and most of them Colombian nationals, live in Glendale, Pasadena, Montclair, Los Angeles, Sunland, Sun Valley, North Hollywood and South Gate. All the suspects, including the alleged ringleader, are being held in the Glendale Jail on $1 million bail on various cocaine possession charges. They are scheduled to be arraigned in Los Angeles Municipal Court today.

The cocaine, which was in solid brick form, was the largest amount ever seized by Glendale police, investigators said. Police also confiscated $275,000 and four cars.

Detectives gave this account of how they broke up the drug network they said operated through a system of “stash houses”:

On July 21, 1985, an anonymous tip led police to an apartment at 428 S. Verdugo Road, where they found Jaime Lotera lying on the living room floor in a pool of blood. He had been shot at least 14 times and had been dead for nearly a week.

Police searched the residence, found drug paraphernalia and called in a team of eight investigators to follow the case.

Investigators learned that Lotera was an alias for Jaime Restrepo. Restrepo was linked by informants to Jaime Giraldo of Glendale, a 48-year-old Colombian, who police had long suspected was a major supplier of narcotics, Detective Joe Jimenez said.

Giraldo became the focus of the investigation and around-the-clock surveillance. By following Giraldo and through other information gathered by detectives, several homes were identified as drop points for the drugs before they were distributed to street dealers.

The homes, investigators said, were mostly in quiet, residential neighborhoods. Glendale, partly because of its closeness to major freeways, was the ideal place for such houses, police said.

“We knew it was a big ring, and we knew it might be dangerous, because of the homicide,” Detective Wilfredo Cid said.

For 11 months, the detectives set up stakeouts, watching activities at the houses and recording the coming and going of various suspects.

On Monday afternoon, 20 officers from the Glendale, Los Angeles, South Gate and Montclair police departments executed a series of simultaneous raids on the stash houses. None of the suspects, including Giraldo, resisted arrest, Cid said.

Police added that none of the suspects have been implicated in the slaying of Restrepo.