The Region : $226-Million Cocaine Cache Is Seized

Narcotics investigators arrested two men in a North Hollywood parking lot and confiscated 1,333 pounds of cocaine in what officials said was the second-largest seizure of the drug in the state this year. Los Angeles police and federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as drug dealers capped a four-month investigation with the arrests of Leopoldo Piloto, 48, and Carlos Garcia, 25. The suspects were arrested in the parking lot of a Sears store at Laurel Canyon and Victory Boulevards. Cocaine with a street value estimated at $226 million was found in the suspects’ car and at Piloto’s home in the 11600 block of Stagg Street. Piloto, described by police as a Cuban native, and Garcia, a Colombian national, were booked on suspicion of possession of cocaine for sale. Bail was set at $5 million each. Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said the seizure was second in size only to one made last April in Orange County, where LAPD narcotics officers and DEA agents garnered 1,784 pounds of cocaine with a value estimated at the time at nearly $500 million. Eleven suspects were arrested in that seizure.