6 Held, 660 Pounds of Cocaine Seized at Desert Airport

About 660 pounds of cocaine bound for New York was seized on a private jet at Bermuda Dunes Airport and six people were arrested, a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman said Saturday.

The cocaine, worth about $30 million, was found aboard a Lear jet preparing to take off Friday night from the small airport, said Ralph Lochridge of the DEA’s Los Angeles office.

The seizure foiled an effort to open a new smuggling route in Southern California’s desert resort region, authorities said.

“It appears to be a new back door around the usual corridors,” Lochridge said.

Bermuda Dunes is a resort area in the Coachella Valley near Indio, about 15 miles southeast of Palm Springs. The airport is near Interstate 10.

The plane was to head to an airport in New Jersey and continue on to an airport in New York, Lochridge said. A five-month investigation led to the seizure.

The cocaine came from Colombia through Mexico and into the United States through the Calexico Port of Entry east of San Diego. From the border it was brought to Bermuda Dunes Airport by pickup trucks, Lochridge said.

Arrested were Anibal Cardona, a Colombian national; Ricardo Ocana, a Salvadoran; Oscar William Alvarez of Medellin, Colombia; Florentino Rosas of Chihuahua, Mexico; Enrique Contreras of Mexicali, Mexico, and Sean Christopher Durant of Santa Monica.

“These were two transportation groups,” Lochridge said.

One group was a Mexican trafficking organization bringing the cocaine out of Mexico and into the United States, he said. The other was a Colombian organization moving the cocaine within the United States.

The six were being held in Los Angeles for investigation of distribution and possession of cocaine and conspiracy.