Police Trail 410-Pound Cocaine Shipment; Capture N.J. Man

San Fernando police and federal drug agents have seized nearly 410 pounds of “maximum quality” cocaine worth an estimated $46.5 million in what officials said was one of the largest drug hauls in the Police Department’s history.

Authorities arrested Jose Madera, 48, of Edison, N.J., in Ontario Tuesday soon after watching him transfer seven boxes containing the 186 packages of cocaine from one rented truck to another, which he drove away. No other arrests were made.

Police and federal Drug Enforcement Agency agents had been tracking the cocaine for four days, first at an undisclosed location in the San Fernando Valley and then to a City of Industry motel parking lot. The cocaine was transported in a rented truck that also contained 200 boxes of tortilla chips, police Sgt. Jim Pollock said.

Officers said the cocaine, wrapped in 1-kilogram packages labeled “maximum calidad,” was headed for the East Coast.

Fraction of Volume

Although the amount of drugs seized was large for the San Fernando Police Department, officials said, it is but a fraction of the volume of drugs that regularly passes through Los Angeles to other parts of the country.

The investigation began when San Fernando police received a tip Saturday from an informant who said a cocaine shipment would leave the San Fernando Valley in a U-Haul truck, Pollock said. The drugs probably came from South America via Mexico, he said.

Pollock refused to say precisely where the drugs were stored or where officers began monitoring the truck. But he said they followed it from the Valley to the City of Industry, where the driver left it in a motel parking lot.

On Tuesday, Madera arrived and transferred the cardboard boxes from the first U-Haul truck to another. He then drove the second truck away, Pollock said.

Authorities trailed Madera for several hours, finally stopping him in Ontario as he headed east on the San Bernardino Freeway, Pollock said. Pollock said police initially hoped Madera would make more pickups at other places where cocaine was stored. Police arrested him when it appeared that he was about to leave the state.

Madera is charged with transport and possession of cocaine for sale and remains in custody with bail set at $100,000.