Agents Seize $40 Million in Cocaine

Almost 800 pounds of cocaine with an estimated street value of $40 million was seized in Orange and four people were arrested, federal authorities said Friday.

The seizure was the result of a 2-year investigation by San Fernando and Torrance police and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA spokesman Ralph Lochridge said.

On Thursday, Fernando N. Andrade, 37, Gabriel N. Andrade, 41, and William Arias, 33, all Colombian nationals, were arrested in a liquor store parking lot in Orange after agents found 40 pounds of cocaine in the trunk of their car, he said.

After obtaining a search warrant a few hours later, eight Torrance police officers and four DEA agents went to a house on the 700 block of Russell Drive, about a mile from the liquor store, and arrested Erwin J. Gonzalez, 35, also a Colombian national.

Agents found nearly 800 pounds of cocaine in cardboard boxes stored in the garage, Lochridge said.

The investigation began in September, 1987, when agents broke up a major drug-running operation by the Medellin cartel, once considered the biggest supplier of cocaine to the United States, Lochridge said. At that time, agents received information on other drug traffickers.

The house in Orange was used as a temporary storage place called a “stash house,” he said. From there, the drugs were destined for New York, Chicago and Detroit, as well as Southern California, Lochridge said.

Torrance Police Lt. David Marsden said he did not believe any drugs were sold at the house, which Gonzalez rented.

Several neighbors said Gonzalez kept to himself and left the house in the evenings, dressed in a business suit, and returned in the mornings.

The Orange County seizure was “not the largest by a long shot,” said Capt. Tim Simon of the county’s Regional Narcotics Suppression Program. “But it’s still a substantial amount.”

More than 1,200 pounds of cocaine was seized in a 1987 raid, Simon said.

Lochridge said he was pleased with the results.

“We were determined to see that (the cocaine) wouldn’t hit the streets,” he said. As a result of the investigation, more arrests are expected during the next few months.

All four men were held at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, he said.