6 Arrested as $60 Million in Cocaine Is Seized

Six people were arrested and cocaine worth an estimated $60 million was seized by FBI agents in Orange and Los Angeles counties, ending a monthlong investigation, authorities said Tuesday.

FBI spokesman Fred Reagan said the five men and one woman were arrested Monday night at homes in Santa Ana and the Los Angeles County community of Sepulveda, where agents bearing search warrants discovered 202 kilograms of cocaine.

Los Angeles-based FBI agents and West Covina police detectives arrested Carlos Arturo Ocampo, 33, and his wife, Luz Marieth Herrera Ocampo, 21, Colombian citizens who live in Santa Ana; Jorge Arango, 33, a Miami resident but also a Colombian citizen; Robert Rodriguez,32, of Panorama City; Ignacio Antonio Uribe, 29, of South Gate, and Gerald James Donato, 34, of Sepulveda.

West Covina Police Chief Craig Mecham estimated that the cocaine’s street value is $60.6 million. The arrests were the result of a monthlong investigation by the FBI and the West Covina police’s special enforcement team, the FBI said, declining to give details.

The six in custody were brought before a U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon after being booked on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute it, Reagan said.

If convicted on the federal charge, he added, the suspects could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years to life in prison and fined up to $4 million each.