6 Go on Trial in Record Drug Bust in Sylmar

A federal prosecutor disclosed Wednesday that a Sylmar warehouse which was the site a year ago of the country’s biggest drug bust--21.4 tons of cocaine--was a conduit for 77 tons of cocaine in a three-month period before the seizure.

Assistant U.S. Atty. James P. Walsh Jr., in opening remarks at the federal court trial of six alleged drug smugglers, called the seizure an “epic case” of law enforcement cracking a drug distribution ring of mammoth proportions.

“These six men . . . were operating a business distributing (multi) ton-quantity amounts of cocaine,” Walsh told jurors in what is expected to be a monthlong trial before U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr.

All of the defendants, four of whom are related, have pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers contended Wednesday that they had nothing to do with the drug seizure.

Defense attorney David Z. Chesnoff of Las Vegas, taking note of the notoriety of the case, said the jury should not be impressed by “the weight of the cocaine, but the weight of the evidence.”

The raid on the 3,500-square-foot warehouse on Bradley Avenue in the San Fernando Valley community of Sylmar last Sept. 28 and 29 shocked even some veteran law enforcement officials and focused attention on the various routes Colombian drug lords were using to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

A citizen’s tip to law enforcement exposed the Sylmar operation, where an import business operated as a front. In addition to thousands of one-kilo packages of cocaine stored in boxes found amid pinatas and velvet canvas paintings, police seized about $12 million in cash, mostly in $20 and $100 bills.

The wholesale value of the haul was estimated at about $6 billion and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimated that the seizure represented about 5% of the world’s annual production of cocaine.

The raid by DEA agents and local police underscored that Southern California had become the major narcotics distribution point for the nation.

Prosecutor Walsh said that ledgers confiscated at the warehouse, two of which he described as the “green book” and the “blue book,” documented a cocaine operation of huge proportions.

In a period of accelerated shipments during 89 days preceding the raid, approximately 154,000 pounds of cocaine--or 77 tons--passed through the warehouse, according to Walsh, chief of the U.S. attorney’s major narcotics section in Los Angeles.

Walsh said he would present “a very straightforward case” of a sophisticated drug organization that utilized walkie-talkies, telephone beepers and driving techniques to avoid law enforcement detection.

Code names were used for different brands of cocaine, such as “Coca-Cola” or “Bush,” a reference to President Bush. Customers also had code names.

DEA agents said the cocaine seized in Sylmar had traveled about 3,500 miles between Colombia and Los Angeles along a route authorities call “the Trampoline,” so named because the cocaine is “bounced” up into this country from Mexico.

The case, Walsh said, represented “a tale of two cities”--Los Angeles and El Paso, Tex.--in that the huge amounts of cocaine were hauled from the Texas border city to Southern California in big-rig trucks with secret compartments.

According to ledgers and documents seized in the Sylmar raid, the smuggling operation began in December, 1987. Records showed that from Mexico, the cocaine was shipped through El Paso on Interstate 25 to Albuquerque and then along Interstate 40 to California, Walsh said.

Over this “ribbon of concrete and asphalt,” Walsh said, “traveled unimaginable amounts of cocaine.”

Authorities have said the mastermind of the operation was Rafael Munoz Talavera, 38, described as “a premier godfather” who has been responsible for the importation of multi-ton quantities of Colombian cocaine into the United States. He was captured by Mexican police last November and has been held in the Juarez area pending his trial, law enforcement sources said.

The eldest of the six defendants is Carlos Tapia-Ponce, 69, of Chihuahua, Mexico, who is in ill health and whom Judge Hatter ordered checked today at a local hospital to see if he can stand the stress of the trial. According to court documents, Tapia-Ponce, along with his son, Hector Tapia-Anchondo, 39, who is also a defendant, were key lieutenants in the operation. The father rented the Sylmar warehouse, paying $1,700 a month in $20 bills.

According to Walsh and his co-prosecutor, Special Asst. U.S. Atty. Susan Bryant-Deason, documents seized in Tapia-Anchondo’s El Paso home contain data directly linking him to the Sylmar operation.

A third defendant is James Romero McTague, 42, one of Tapia-Ponce’s sons-in-law who is an El Paso resident and the only American-born defendant. McTague was described by Walsh as the warehouse manager.

According to an October, 1989, affidavit filed in El Paso by a DEA agent in support of a search warrant, McTague had been “arranging the transportation of million-dollar cocaine shipments” between El Paso and Los Angeles “approximately three times per week.”

The three other defendants are Jose Ignacio Monroy, 37, another son-in-law of Tapia-Ponce; Hugo Castillon-Alvarez, 33, and Miguel Chavez, 34.

All of the defendants except Chavez are charged with conspiracy and intent to distribute cocaine. Chavez is charged with possessing and intending to sell cocaine. They face sentences of up to life in prison, if convicted.