Local News in Brief : 2 Charged in Drug Plot
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A Westside liquor store owner and the operator of a Newport Beach auto leasing business were charged Tuesday with conspiring to buy 110 pounds of cocaine.
Artie Gilbert Sr., 38, and Michael DeVaughn, 31, were arrested at a Buena Park Holiday Inn on Friday after they allegedly tried to consummate a deal to buy 50 kilograms--about 110 pounds--of cocaine from an undercover agent, said James Aumond, an Orange County district attorney’s investigator.
Gilbert, of Baldwin Hills, operates AG’s Bail Bonds in Venice and AG’s Liquor stores, a chain of four stores in Inglewood, Venice, Westwood and South-Central Los Angeles, investigators said. DeVaughn, who lives in motels, operates The West Group, an auto leasing business in Newport Beach, Aumond said.
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