Cocaine Valued at $177 Million Seized in Raids

Cocaine with a potential street value of more than $177 million was seized and seven suspects were arrested by federal drug agents and Los Angeles police in simultaneous raids on half a dozen Southern California homes, it was disclosed Tuesday.

Also confiscated in the Monday night roundup, according to federal Drug Enforcement Administration agent Charles Bullock, was nearly $630,000 in cash. He said at least six of those arrested were Colombian nationals.

Bullock declined to place a dollar value on the seized cocaine, but Lt. J. R. Schiller of the Los Angeles Police Department narcotics division said it totaled 1,042 pounds, which he said would sell on the street after being adulterated by dealers for an estimated $177.5 million.

Schiller said nearly 7,000 pounds of cocaine has now been seized in the Los Angeles area this year by police and federal narcotics agents.

783 Pounds in San Dimas

Bullock said 783 pounds were found in a house in the San Dimas area, where officers took into custody Carlos Alberto Gomez, 28; Luis Ignacio Dugue-Becerra, 20, and Olga Luz Cardena Gomez, 21.

About $600,000 was seized in a Monrovia home, where officers arrested Luis Eduardo Castrillon, 32, and Gloria Elena Castrillon, 25.

Another $28,000 in cash and a smaller quantity of cocaine were reported confiscated in three separate apartments on Wellesley Avenue in West Los Angeles. Two suspects, Juan Carlos Durante, 44, and Carlos Ernesto Gonzalez, 26, were arrested in those raids, Bullock said.

No one was arrested at still another home in the 17000 block of Colima Road in Hacienda Heights, where unidentified documents were picked up by the officers.

The arrests reportedly came as the result of a tip from an individual whose name was not released.

The suspects were booked for investigation of conspiring to sell and possess cocaine and were being held by Los Angeles police in lieu of $5-million bail each.