976 Pounds of Cocaine Seized; 5 Arrested in Woodland Hills

Narcotics investigators “gave the people of Los Angeles a big valentine by taking more than 900 pounds of cocaine off the streets of this city,” Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Tuesday.

Flanked by representatives from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Customs Service and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Gates told reporters that detectives arrested five suspects and seized 976.8 pounds of cocaine at two locations in Woodland Hills.

The one-kilogram packages of the drug, with a street value that authorities estimated at $166.5 million, covered a desk and a table at the Police Department’s Central Division.

Acting on an anonymous tip, investigators set up surveillance at a house in the 5100 block of Cerrillos Drive. Early Tuesday morning, they followed a van from that address to a shopping center at Topanga Canyon and Ventura boulevards, where the driver parked, Gates said.

Detectives arrested the driver, Myron Keene, 47, of New York City, and were given permission to search the van, Gates said. Officers recovered 437 kilos, or more than 961 pounds, of cocaine, Gates said.

7 Kilos Seized

Officers also seized another seven kilos of cocaine from a vehicle parked in the 5100 block of Llano Drive, where they arrested Miguel A. Libutti, 42, an Argentine national; Adolfo Estrada, 32; Lorenia Valasqo, 19, and Nellie Alvarez, 46, all Colombian nationals, Gates said.

The suspects were booked on charges of transporting cocaine for sale and distribution. No bail had been set by Tuesday evening. Gates said officers would recommend bail of $2 million each.

Gates said officers were conducting a search at the Cerrillos Drive address--”where this journey began”--while his press conference was in progress. “We don’t know what we’ll find there,” he said.

“This never stops,” John Hensley of the Customs Service said of the seizure. “It just gets bigger and bigger.”

Tuesday’s seizure brings the total amount of cocaine confiscated by Los Angeles police, acting with other local police agencies as well as state and federal authorities, to more than 42,000 pounds since 1985, Gates said.

Officers from the Huntington Beach Police Department also assisted with the arrests, Gates said.