Drug Case Suspect Secretly Held on $500-Million Bail

A suspected Colombian drug-money launderer has been secretly held in Ventura County Jail for nearly a week on $500-million bail after his arrest in Miami and extradition to California.

Ontoniel Urrego, 67, and at least three others are the targets of a sealed Ventura County Grand Jury indictment charging them with conspiracy to sell illicit narcotics and violating California money-laundering laws.

A law enforcement source called Urrego, who has been in the export-import business in Florida, “a major player” in the laundering of millions of dollars in Colombian drug cartel profits.

Urrego’s attorneys could not be reached for comment.

His arrest on March 18 and extradition grew out of an investigation spearheaded by the Simi Valley Police Department, which seized $2.5 million in May, 1989, after a stakeout of the Urrego family home in Simi Valley.

At that time, three Colombians, including Floriberto and Martha Urrego of Simi Valley, and a Guatemalan were arrested. Simi Valley police said the four were doing business with South American drug traffickers.

They were detained for a few days in the Ventura County Jail. When no charges were filed, they were released. Authorities suspect they may have fled to South America.

Since Saturday, Ontoniel Urrego, who police said also lived in Simi Valley several years ago, has been in Ventura County Jail. He is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

The $500-million bail was set last August by Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones in connection with a fugitive arrest warrant for Urrego, sources familiar with case said.

Through a court bailiff, Jones said he would not comment on the bail because it involved an ongoing case.

Simi Valley police have arrested Urrego’s sister-in-law, Luz Urrego, in connection with the sealed indictment, a law enforcement source said. She is also in jail here and her bail was set at $1 million.

A source said two other Colombians remain fugitives in the case.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office has attempted to keep the Urrego case secret until Friday’s arraignment before Superior Court Judge Charles W. Campbell Jr.

“We’re just not at liberty to explain on the record why we haven’t issued any news release,” said Chief Deputy Dist. Atty. Vincent J. O’Neill Jr. “We will be forthcoming once the first court appearance occurs.”

Deputy Dist. Atty. James Grunert, in charge of Urrego’s prosecution, also declined to comment directly on the case. But he suggested that a bail as high as $500 million means that a defendant is either “very dangerous or there’s a high degree of flight risk.”

The bail’s magnitude surprised attorneys familiar with big drug cases.

“It’s an indirect way of denying bail,” said Robert Malley, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “The 8th Amendment says, ‘Excessive bail shall not be required.’ I think this makes the 8th Amendment relatively meaningless.”

Curt Hazell, a deputy prosecutor who heads the Los Angeles County district attorney’s narcotics unit, said the highest bail he could recall in a drug trafficking case was $5 million.