OXNARD : 3 Plead Guilty to Smuggling Cocaine

Three men pleaded guilty Monday in Ventura County Superior Court to cocaine-smuggling charges in connection with an alleged plan to sell 100 kilograms of the drug to a DEA informant in Oxnard in July.

Mario Beltran, 20, of Los Angeles and Antonio Garcia and Manuel Rodriguez, both 23, of Oxnard pleaded guilty to one count each of transportation of cocaine for sale and could face up to 10 years in prison, Deputy Dist. Atty. James Grunert said.

Grunert said the unidentified informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration contacted Rodriguez at El Bohemio, an Oxnard bar, on July 10 to set up a cocaine deal. The two met Garcia on July 12 at the Motel 6 on Johnson Drive, but Garcia failed to bring a sample of the cocaine, Grunert said.

Garcia offered to introduce the informant to his main supplier, Beltran, in Sun Valley the next day, and Garcia promised that the informant could buy 100 kilos of cocaine from Beltran for $23,500 per kilo, Grunert said.

But Beltran told the informant that he could only supply him with five kilos at first and they arranged to meet at the Motel 6 on July 13, Grunert said.

Garcia, Beltran and Jose Torres, a Mexican illegal alien, met the informant at the motel, where the five-kilo deal was consummated and the three were arrested by DEA agents and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies, Grunert said. Rodriguez was arrested later, he said.

Torres pleaded guilty to simple possession of cocaine and faces up to one year in prison.

Sentencing for all four men is scheduled Nov. 13 before Superior Court Judge Charles R. McGrath.