Police Net Drug Stash, Suspects in Two Sweeps

Authorities scored a double victory in the local war on drugs Friday, arresting the alleged principals in a $100-million-a-year cocaine ring that supplied Los Angeles gangs and 43 states and seizing a stash of cocaine with a street value of more than $250 million.

The developments, which took place in unrelated police operations, reinforce what many law enforcement officials have been saying for some time: Los Angeles has become the nation’s top drug-trafficking center.

“These actions, I hope, will do more than just scratch the surface,” said a federal drug enforcement agent who asked not to be identified. “These busts are gigantic, but they’re becoming more commonplace in Southern California.

“That’s a sad state of affairs, but we’re working on it,” the agent said.

Indeed, the seizure late Thursday night of 1,531 pounds of cocaine in Van Nuys, Montebello and Yorba Linda in Orange County--was only the fifth-largest ever overseen by the Los Angeles Police Department, officials said.

Last September, drug agents seized almost 20 tons of cocaine, worth as much as $6 billion, in a San Fernando Valley warehouse, calling it the biggest haul in city history.

And officials called the arrests Friday of at least 16 alleged members of a drug-trafficking operation near Los Angeles International Airport “significant,” but acknowledged that larger organizations have been put out of business.

The ongoing effort to stem the flow and sale of drugs in Southern California has begun to pay off, officials said.

“Recently, we’re beginning to see some indication of an accumulative effect of all these seizures,” said Los Angeles Assistant Police Chief David D. Dotson.

Police officials credited cooperation among various agencies for Friday’s seizure and arrests.

The latest round of drug busts began Thursday night when a swarm of narcotics officials from Los Angeles and Orange counties converged on a condominium in Yorba Linda.

There, officers found 1,320 pounds of cocaine. They also confiscated a handgun and two luxury cars.

Two men, identified by authorities as Jairo Sarbia Ayala, 37, and Jose Jesus Novoa, 26, were arrested at the condo. They were being held without bail by federal authorities.

Two more seizures of cocaine, totaling 132 pounds, were made in Montebello and Van Nuys, officials said.

While eager to show off the seized cocaine to reporters, officials at a morning news conference at Los Angeles Police Department headquarters declined to answer questions about the events leading up to the arrests or the men’s suspected role in drug trafficking.

Officials also declined to discuss how the cocaine was transported to Los Angeles and whether it was destined for distribution outside the state.

Los Angeles acted as the lead agency in the case. Other agencies involved in the seizure were the FBI, the Santa Ana and Brea police departments, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department and the Orange County Regional Narcotics Suppression Program.

Later in the day, another drug task force, led by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the Inglewood Police Department, held a news conference to announce the arrests of the suspected leader and 15 suspected members of a drug-trafficking ring that allegedly distributed more than 2,000 pounds of cocaine a month.

The arrest early Friday of the ring’s reputed mastermind, Thomas Clifford Whitmore, 26, of Inglewood, culminated a two-year investigation that began when Whitmore was stopped for speeding on Manchester Avenue.

Inglewood Police Chief Ray Johnson said that cocaine was found in Whitmore’s late-model vehicle, prompting authorities to launch an undercover operation that eventually led to Friday’s arrests.

More than $4.5 million in assets allegedly owned by the drug traffickers, including luxury cars, homes and boats, were seized Friday, Johnson said.

Among those arrested was Whitmore’s mother, Wilma Lee Whitmore, 44, also of Inglewood, said Mike Holm, assistant chief agent in the DEA’s Los Angeles office.

According to Holm, the operation supplied cocaine--smuggled through Mexico from Colombia--to four “sets” of Los Angeles street gangs and to cities nationwide, from Detroit and Oklahoma City to Newark, N.J., and Philadelphia.

The 16 were being held by federal authorities.