Torrance Police Seize 508 Pounds of Cocaine

Three Portuguese nationals have been arrested and 508 pounds of cocaine has been confiscated in the largest seizure of cocaine ever made by Torrance Police.

But it didn’t happen in Torrance.

The cocaine, which police said has a street value of $23 million, was on a truck in East Los Angeles, on its way to the East Coast, when it was seized, said Torrance Police Lt. David G. Marsden.

The carefully wrapped packages of cocaine, marked with what narcotics officers said were distribution codes, were found hidden in the cab of the truck stopped late Tuesday.

Undercover officers from Torrance, assisted by Los Angeles police, county sheriff’s deputies and the California Highway Patrol, arrested Jose Candido Louro, 23; Luis Manny Domingos, 25, and Jose Edvardo Azevedo, 26. All were described as Portuguese nationals living in Newark, N.J.

The three were charged with felony possession of cocaine for sale and are being held in the Los Angeles County Jail on $100,000 bail each.

They were arrested after Torrance police “developed information” that the truck contained what Marsden called “multiple kilos of cocaine.” He said he could not be more specific because the investigation is continuing.

The cocaine, wrapped in yellow, gray and white plastic, stood more than a foot tall and covered a table at Torrance Police headquarters.

The seizure broke a Torrance police record set in early 1986 when officers confiscated 475 pounds of cocaine. That seizure also did not occur in Torrance, but on a freighter bound from Seattle to Canada.

Detectives said international cocaine traffickers have increased their presence in Torrance, and that undercover surveillance of suspects has frequently taken police far outside city limits.