Police Seize Wrong Suspects in Drug Sting

When undercover officers conducting a drug sting at a hotel Friday witnessed two people exchanging a box, they moved in. But they got the wrong suspects.

Police are still baffled by what the couple were doing with a box with $300,000 in it.

The incident began at 1:30 p.m. when Santa Ana police, expecting to sting drug dealers at the Hampton Inn Hotel on Katella Way, noticed a woman leave the hotel, pick up large a box from a man parked across the street, and put it in her own car.

When she returned to the hotel, another man met her and they walked back to her car.

At that point, police moved in.

“A search of the box revealed that it contained $300,000,” Lt. Earl Porter said.

But the people with the box were not the drug-dealing suspects the undercover police had sought.

But who gave them the box and what they intended to do with it remain unclear, police said. The couple told police that they did not know the box contained money.

“They were released after signing a disclaimer about the money,” Porter said. “They could not provide any information about it.”

They were identified as Monica Martinez, 30, and Hector Ochoa, 30, both of Tijuana.

An investigation is continuing as police attempt to determine where the money came from.