SAN CLEMENTE : Two Held in Sale of Phony Cocaine

Two men were arrested Tuesday in San Clemente for allegedly trying to sell drywall disguised as $2.5 million worth of cocaine to undercover police officers.

Suspects Arcesop Espbar-Benitez, 31, of Sherman Oaks and Nestor Martinez, 36, of Downey had been tracked for a month by police from San Clemente and El Monte and federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials from San Diego, San Clemente Sgt. Richard Downing said.

In an attempt to fool undercover officers, who had arranged to buy 150 kilograms of cocaine from the suspects, drywall boards were cut into 10-by-6-inch blocks and dusted with small amounts of cocaine, Downing said.

The men packed the drywall, which resembles hard-packed chalk, into the trunk of a new black Mercedes-Benz and met undercover officers at a coin-operated car wash on South El Camino Real, Downing said.

“Someone went to a lot of trouble to cut this up and wrap it in brown, stamped paper and everything,” said a DEA agent on the case who declined to be identified.

“Imagine if you would have been fronting $2.5 million to buy this stuff,” said Downing, who added that the price charged was the “going rate” for that amount of cocaine. He could not estimate its street value.

“If they would have tried this switch with underworld drug dealers, they probably wouldn’t have lived,” Downing said.

The men were first arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine, then confessed to officers that the substance was phony, police said. They then were arrested on suspicion of “sale of a substance in lieu of a controlled substance.”

The men had sold cocaine to undercover officers in previous deals made during the investigation, police said.