VENTURA : 2 Men in Drug Bust to Be Arraigned Today
Two Anaheim men who were arrested in Ventura during a joint undercover operation that snared about $60,000 worth of cocaine and heroin are to be arraigned today in Ventura County Municipal Court.
Alejandro M. Hernandez, 23, and Jerardo M. Contreras, 20, were being held Monday in Ventura County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail, sheriff’s Sgt. Fred Bustillo said.
The two were arrested Friday in the Toys-R-Us parking lot at Johnson Drive and Ventura Road, where authorities also seized a kilogram of cocaine and an ounce of tar heroine from the front seat of their pickup truck, police said.
In addition to the drugs they confiscated, authorities raided a house in Orange County and seized more than $25,000 in cash, all of it in small denominations, police said.
“This is more for street users,” Lt. Pat Miller of the Ventura Police Department said of the seized drugs.
He added that the suspects were believed to be couriers for an organized group in Anaheim that has been selling to Ventura County drug users “for some time.”
The suspects, who had arranged to sell the drugs to an undercover officer at the parking lot, were targets of the newly formed Ventura-Oxnard Narcotic Enforcement Team.
Miller said the team includes officials from the Ventura and Oxnard police departments, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, the FBI and the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.
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