3-Year Undercover Operation Yields 1,000 Pounds of Cocaine : Crime: Ventura County-based program disrupts Colombian cartels’ U.S. business. Eighteen are arrested and $5.8 million seized.

Federal and local authorities in Ventura County have seized $5.8 million in cash and nearly 1,000 pounds of cocaine as part of a three-year nationwide money-laundering and drug-trafficking case targeting major Colombian cartels.

The undercover operation, which was based in Ventura County, led to the arrest of one high-ranking member of the Cali cartel and 17 other members of the Cali and Medellin cartels. No details of the arrests were given, nor were the suspects identified.

More arrests are expected as authorities seek a dozen federal indictments in the case next week. Five suspects have been secretly indicted in Los Angeles and Detroit, authorities said.

At a press conference in Ventura on Friday, Ventura County Sheriff Larry Carpenter said the case represents the largest confiscation of drug money in county history and the second-largest seizure of drugs. The largest was a 1989 Simi Valley case involving 2,100 pounds of cocaine.

“This will become the benchmark,” Carpenter said.

Up to $2 million of the seized cash could be returned to the Sheriff’s Department through federal asset-forfeiture laws, he said. The money was seized at a variety of locations in several states over two years, including $1 million last month in Thousand Oaks.

The joint investigation by U.S. Customs officials and Ventura County deputies was launched in October, 1991, when an informant arranged a meeting at a Thousand Oaks hotel between undercover sheriff’s deputies and a high-level Cali trafficker.

“We started out with the cartel, so we knew we were going to be at a very significant level,” Carpenter said.

Before long, undercover agents from Ventura County had infiltrated both Colombian cartels and met with traffickers in Los Angeles, Houston, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Newark, N.J., the sheriff said. Authorities consider the two cartels responsible for most of the cocaine imported into this country.

To gain greater access to the cartels, drug agents set up an illegitimate money-laundering organization based in eastern Ventura County that would, for a fee, deposit drug profits in U.S. and foreign banks. The sums averaged about $500,000 and ranged from $100,000 to several million, said James D. Donahue, resident agent in charge of the U.S. Customs office in Oxnard.

In recent months, the investigation expanded into drug trafficking. On half a dozen occasions, agents were paid to transport cocaine, all of which was seized by other authorities before it reached the street.

“In the end, they came to us to not only launder the money, but to transport drugs,” Donahue said. “We couldn’t get into the narcotics early or we would have had to seize it. And that could have tipped them off.”

The case was novel because it involved both money laundering and drug trafficking, authorities said.

Donahue said the 960-pound cocaine seizure, worth about $44 million on the street, will not set the cartels back significantly. But he said the busts have disrupted drug operations within several subgroups.

“Confusion has reigned supreme in the past month, as we had hoped,” he said.

By posing as money launderers, authorities identified 30 bank accounts in Miami, Atlanta, Los Angeles and overseas tied to the cartels’ operations. About $300,000 has been seized in recent weeks from 21 accounts, Donahue said.

Authorities decided to end the investigation last month, when they saw a chance to seize large amounts of both cocaine and cash.

On Jan. 12, undercover agents were given 458 pounds of cocaine at an undisclosed location in Thousand Oaks to deliver to drug sellers. Two days later, authorities seized $1 million in cash in Thousand Oaks. Another $1.5 million was then confiscated in other cities.

At the news conference, authorities laid out piles of cocaine, packaged in white, black and tan wrapping, along with bundles of bills in denominations of $5, $10, $20, and $100.

Investigators would not say whether the suspects are Ventura County residents.

But Sgt. Gary Pentis, who heads the sheriff’s unit that began the investigation, said, “There has been involvement by county residents from the onset of this case.”

Some suspects remained unaware of the broader investigation even after they were arrested, because local police stopped them under the guise of traffic violations, then feigned surprise when discovering cash or cocaine in the cars.

“They have not yet tied together this particular investigation with why they lost a large amount of cocaine or why a bag of money disappeared,” Pentis said.

In addition to customs agents and sheriff’s deputies, the FBI and police in Chicago, Houston, Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Glendale, Orange County and Santa Paula assisted in the investigation.