5-City Task Force Confiscates Cocaine and Cash in 2 Arrests

A new five-city South Bay drug task force has arrested its first suspects and confiscated nearly $1 million worth of cocaine. It also has seized more than $500,000 in cash and an array of flak jackets and semiautomatic assault rifles, it was announced Wednesday.

El Segundo Police Capt. Tim Grimmond said officers of the recently activated Westside Narcotic Enforcement Team (WESTNET) on Friday arrested Maria Minfa Espinoza, 36, at a house in La Puente and Eduardo Torres Castro, 25, at another home in Santa Ana.

In La Puente, Grimmond said, officers found Espinoza and a child who was walking out of the house carrying a package wrapped like a gift. It contained $275,000 in cash.

Inside the home, he said, the officers found another $250,000 as well as 15 weapons--most of them semiautomatic AK-47s, AK-15s and Uzis. The others included automatic pistols and shotguns. All were wrapped as though being sent somewhere, Grimmond said, adding that “it’s hard to say where.” Either that, he said, or they had just been delivered.

At the Santa Ana location, Grimmond said, task force members arrested Castro and found nine pounds of pure cocaine with a street value of $900,000, he said.

The arrests, said Grimmond, followed a 15-day investigation into drug deals in the South Bay. “This is a very affluent area,” Grimmond said. “There is a lot of money here and cocaine is the drug of choice. There is so much of it coming in.”

In an effort to stem the flood, the police chiefs of El Segundo, Inglewood, Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach and Palos Verdes Estates began organizing the task force last summer and it became operational in mid-January.