COUNTYWIDE : Police Arrest 2 After Cocaine Seized
Narcotic investigators with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department arrested two Los Angeles men Thursday after finding five kilograms of cocaine and $20,000 cash under the back seat of their car, authorities said.
Roberto Camacho Espinosa and Loreto Chaidez Mendoza, both 30, were being held in Ventura County Jail on suspicion of possessing narcotics for sale, said Sgt. Robert Sparks. Bail has been set at $100,000 each.
On a tip from the Drug Enforcement Administration in Santa Barbara, investigators arranged to meet the men for an undercover buy in Thousand Oaks, said Lt. Guy Inglis.
But the two men left the parking lot at Du Par’s Restaurants & Bakeries, 33 W. Thousand Oaks Blvd., before investigators arrived, he said.
About 13 narcotics investigators searched for the car on the Ventura Freeway before pulling over the suspects at Balboa Avenue in Encino about 5:30 p.m., he said.
Investigators found the cocaine, valued at about $125,000, and $20,000 in small bills under the car’s back seat and a loaded .45-caliber automatic handgun under the front seat, Inglis said.
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