3 Convicted on Drug Charges; 4th Is Set Free

Three people were convicted Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court on drug charges stemming from a raid in which 100 pounds of cocaine was seized, while a fourth defendant was acquitted.

Gloria Jean Gonzales of Anaheim; her sister, Frances Mae Gonzales of Irvine, and Richard Allen Aguilierra of Tustin were found guilty on charges of conspiracy and possession of cocaine and heroin for sale.

Moses John Chavez, 32, was acquitted of similar charges, three months after a jury deadlocked, 11 to 1, in favor of convicting him, forcing a new trial.

“We’re delighted,” said Robert K. Weinberg, who represented Chavez. “(Chavez) came close to going to the state penitentiary.”

Weinberg said Chavez lived at Gloria Gonzales’ house in Irvine but did not know a drug operation was going on there.

Sentencing for the other three is scheduled for April 24. Defense attorneys for the Gonzales sisters and Aguilierra are expected to file motions for a new trial. The three could be sentenced to 15 years in prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Cafferty said.

The four were arrested March 13 in a raid in which police seized about 100 pounds of cocaine and about one pound of heroin at the Tustin house where Aguilierra lived and $650,000 in cash at the Gonzales house in Irvine.

Prosecutors claimed that ledgers found at the Irvine house indicated that a drug operation existed that had taken in as much as $77 million over a long period.

The seizure of 100 pounds of cocaine was then the largest in Orange County history; one month later 1,784 pounds of cocaine and $730,000 in cash were seized in raids on six homes in the county.