Accused Truck Driver for Cocaine Ring Gets a Low-Profile Hearing

A man who allegedly drove a semi-trailer truck delivering cocaine to the Sylmar warehouse that was the scene of the world’s biggest narcotics seizure was arraigned in low-profile proceedings Wednesday in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

Gilberto Mendoza, 28, of New Mexico pleaded not guilty to charges of transportation of cocaine and possession of cocaine for sale. He was then taken to an undisclosed location, where he is being held on $9-million bail.

At the same time, three other defendants in the case were ordered held without bail in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. A fourth has a bail hearing scheduled for today.

Authorities revealed that Mendoza was arrested Oct. 3 in an undisclosed area of Van Nuys after he left a residence under surveillance by members of the multi-agency task force that made the Sept. 28 seizure of more than 21 tons of cocaine.

“He is believed to have been a courier, a truck driver, for this organization,” Huntington Park Police Detective William Huffman said. “The trailer that was at the warehouse was his.”

Mendoza’s arrest--the seventh in the high-profile case--was kept secret by authorities for eight days. Both Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Curt Hazell and Mendoza’s attorney, Deputy Public Defender Rita Smith, declined to explain why the arrest was not announced as the other arrests were. The attorneys would not say whether Mendoza has cooperated with officials, as some other defendants in the case reportedly have done.

“That’s privileged information,” Smith said.

In federal court, Magistrate Volney V. Brown Jr. declared three other suspects in the case a flight risk and a danger to the community. Brown ordered the men held without bail pending their trial on a charge of conspiracy to distribute cocaine.

Brown’s ruling came after defense attorneys for the three men said their clients had strong family ties and no record of previous arrests. The three suspects are Hugo Fernando Castillon, 32, of Sherman Oaks; Mauricio Monroy, 36, of Mexico City, and James Romero McTague, 41, of El Paso.

In addition, McTague’s attorney, Michael Pancer, said his client was being unfairly detained in a “lock-down” facility at Metropolitan Detention Center because of statements he made to narcotics investigators under “threats and coercion.”

In fact, both McTague and Monroy have been separated from the general prison population at the Metropolitan Detention Center because of statements they made to investigators concerning the case, Pancer said.

However, in an interview outside the courtroom, Pancer vehemently denied that McTague was “a snitch.”

Brown denied bail after Assistant U.S. Attorneys Susan Bryant-Deason and James Walsh argued that the potential risk of flight among the three federal defendants was heightened by the fact that each has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole.

Brown also denied a defense attorney’s motion to dismiss the complaint against the defendants on grounds that prosecutors waited too long before arraigning them in federal court.