Drug Investigation Results in 7 Arrests

A six-month investigation ended with the arrests of seven Oxnard residents--one of them a county jail inmate allegedly running a drug operation from his cell--and the seizure of 10 ounces of tar heroin worth a street value of $35,000, police said.

Jorge Blanco Mendez, 24, was arrested at the Ventura County Jail on Wednesday on suspicion of sale of controlled substances, authorities said.

Mendez was in custody on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance for sale in an unrelated case.

Oxnard Police Sgt. Stephen Blanchard said the department’s Special Enforcement Unit also arrested Jose Rogelio Rodriguez, 18, and Raul Suarez, 29, when they allegedly delivered the heroin to the Island Plaza Shopping Center in Oxnard.

They were booked into Ventura County Jail. Rodriguez’s bail was set at $20,000 and Suarez’s at $30,000.

Detectives from the Ventura/Oxnard Narcotics Enforcement Team and the Special Enforcement Unit subsequently served a search warrant in the 100 block of East Birch Street in Oxnard and arrested Gilbert Garcia Lemos, 19, and a 17-year-old juvenile on outstanding warrants, Blanchard said.

Bail was not available for the two.

Yolanda Silva Rodriguez, 20, was arrested on suspicion of sale of a controlled substance, and Edith Irene Sigala, 34, was arrested on suspicion of alleged conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance, Blanchard said.

Sigala’s bail was set at $20,000. Rodriguez’s bail was not available.