Raids Point to L.A. as Focus of Cocaine Trade

Raids in Southern California during the last six weeks that netted 12 suspects, more than a ton of cocaine and $6.2 million in cash stemmed from information gathered nationwide and produced further evidence that the region is fast becoming the drug distribution center of the nation, officials said Wednesday.

Ed Adamson, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the U.S. Customs Service, said the massive cocaine-smuggling and money-laundering operation was unearthed by customs agents in Houston, Miami, New York and Philadelphia.

Law enforcement officers said the raids--code named Operation Greensweep--were conducted in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties after a 2 1/2-month investigation into smuggling and money-laundering operations in the Los Angeles area.

Adamson said officers from the Customs Service, the Internal Revenue Service, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Orange County Regional Narcotic Suppression Unit and the West Covina Police Department participated in the probe.

The suspects arrested were part of a ring that smuggled cocaine across the Mexican border in specially equipped motor vehicles and shipped money from drug sales to the original suppliers overseas. Adamson said the 2,016 pounds of cocained seized had a street value of about $90 million.

He said the $6.2 million in cash and the one-kilo packets of cocaine displayed Wednesday at a news conference at Customs Service offices in San Pedro were “the spoils from the war on drugs in Los Angeles and Orange counties.”

Officers said several weapons--including an AK-47 assault rifle, a .38-caliber revolver and a .45-caliber automatic pistol--and a pickup truck fitted with a false bed in which to hide drugs were also seized in the raids that began on Nov. 2.

Adamson said the money was found at seven locations and the drugs at three--most of them private homes and motor vehicles. He provided few details about the raids, other than to say that three took place in Huntington Beach, La Verne and Fontana.

Fourth Raid in Pomona

Los Angeles County Undersheriff Robert Edmonds said a fourth raid--the one that occurred Nov. 2--took place at the offices of B & M Construction Co. at 111 Mercury Circle in Pomona.

Edmonds said 684 pounds of cocaine, $165,000 in cash and all the firearms were confiscated at B & M Construction. Those arrested there included the owner of the company, Benjamin Lozano Gutierrez, 37, and two of his employees, Uricino Gutierrez Rojas, 24, and Carlos Luis Soto, 24. All three are Mexican nationals, officials said.

Suspects arrested at the other locations included another Mexican, Miguel Angle Franco, 33, and eight Colombians: Gilberto Vegara Cardona, 35; Mario Lopez, 29; Diego Luis Valencia, 24; Luis Alphonso Lopez, 29; Flavio Alejandro Escobar, 27; Luz Beatriz Herrera, 27; Margarita Maria Gonzales, 26, and Elvia Herrera, 43.

Orange County Sheriff Brad Gates made special reference at Wednesday’s news conference to undercover narcotics officers--”the unsung heroes who risked their lives” to make Operation Greensweep a success.

Gates noted that the money seized in the raids eventually will be allocated to the individual law enforcement agencies.

During the news conference, Adamson presented checks to the local agencies representing drug money seized in earlier raids--$236,467 to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, $213,497 to the Orange County drug unit and $37,532 to West Covina police.

In March, 1987, Los Angeles police confiscated 1,907 pounds of cocaine in what then was the largest seizure of the drug in California’s history. Five months later, that record was broken when the LAPD confiscated 2,135 pounds of cocaine.

In October, 1986, federal agents seized 4,620 pounds of cocaine on a freighter docked in Palm Beach, Fla.