Residents Cheer as Three Drug Suspects Are Arrested

After ramming two drug suspects’ cars to end a high-speed chase through Thousand Oaks, Ventura County detectives said they seized seven pounds of cocaine and pulled 8,000 doses of Ecstasy from one of the twisted wrecks.

Residents in the usually quiet neighborhood around Redwood School cheered as detectives arrested three men Tuesday evening and showed off the drugs--including the largest-ever seizure of Ecstasy in county history.

“We were impressed, we were really thrilled,” said Linda Deman, 54, a 23-year resident of Oberlin Avenue. “Everybody said, ‘Right on!’ ”

Said Sgt. Gary Pentis, “We must have had 40 or 50 neighbors out on the street, yelling, ‘Congratulations! . . . . Put ‘em in prison!’ ” He added, “It was a fun one.”

Detectives arrested Spencer Thomas Preston, 37, and Robert George Clinker, 24, both of Newbury Park and Robert Hoesli, 34, of Los Angeles. The three were booked into Ventura County Jail in lieu of $500,000 bond each, on suspicion of selling and conspiring to distribute cocaine.

On Wednesday, Pentis said, detectives seized $25,000 cash from Preston’s safe-deposit box at a Westlake Village bank, and a .357-Magnum handgun and alleged drug-dealing ledgers from his house.

The uncommonly public bust culminated a three-month probe into cocaine dealing in the Conejo Valley, Pentis said.

Agents began watching Preston after informants said he was smuggling cocaine to Germany, where the drug sells for $45,000 a kilogram--about three times the domestic price, Pentis said.

Detectives suspected Preston was getting the cocaine from Los Angeles, probably from Hoesli, Pentis said. But he added, “A lot of it’s still under investigation.”

Eventually, an undercover agent was able to set up the purchase of a kilogram of cocaine from Preston, he said.

As detectives staked out Preston’s house in the 500 block of Wilshire Place in Newbury Park, they saw Clinker and Hoesli drive up and meet with Preston, authorities said.

The officers followed as Preston and Hoesli drove off in a Mazda sedan and Clinker in a 5-liter Ford Mustang.

Satisfied that a deal was about to take place, Pentis said, detectives tried to pull over the two cars as they arrived in the Redwood School neighborhood.

But the Mazda and Ford Mustang sped off, and police chased them through the neighborhood’s twisting streets at speeds reaching 50 m.p.h., Pentis said.

As he fled, Preston flung a cellophane-wrapped kilogram brick of cocaine out the car window, Pentis said. Several blocks later, an undercover car rammed the Ford Mustang, forcing it into the curb, while another smashed into the Mazda.

A sheriff’s detective leaped out of his car and ran toward the Mazda, gun drawn, but Preston sped off again until another undercover car smashed into his, Pentis said.

Preston leaped from the Mazda and sprinted toward the school driveway, police on his heels.

“One of the cops kicked him in the back, and he fell,” said Kenyon Dixon, 19, a Moorpark College student driving into the neighborhood to visit a friend.