FBI Arrests 12, Seizes 10 Tons of Pot

One of the largest marijuana smuggling rings in the United States has been broken up with the seizure of more than 10 tons of the drug, including more than three tons at a single residence in Downey, federal authorities said Tuesday.

The announcement came only hours after nearly 250 law enforcement officers, including FBI SWAT teams from as far away as Washington, D.C., raided 22 locations in Los Angeles, Lynwood and Downey.

The raids, authorities said, followed an 18-month investigation into a drug operation that distributed up to 40 tons of marijuana each year to New York, Indiana, Florida and other locations nationwide. Arrested in the sweeps Tuesday were a dozen members of a Los Angeles-based ring that authorities said has direct connections to the cartel of one of Mexico’s alleged drug kingpins, Ismael Zambada.

“This is big,” said Richard Garcia, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Criminal Division in Los Angeles.

“In terms of the command and distribution of marijuana in the United States, this is one of the top 10 groups during the past decade,” he said.

A federal grand jury indictment handed down last week alleges that the ring, operating since at least July 2000, purchased huge quantities of marijuana from various suppliers in Mexico, including Zambada, for distribution throughout the United States.

U.S. and Mexican authorities believe that the 53-year-old drug lord, nicknamed “El Mayo,” is the man rival drug kingpin Ramon Arellano Felix was attempting to kill when Arellano was shot by police last month in Mazatlan.

The U.S. operation dismantled Tuesday, authorities alleged, also may be linked to three drug killings in this country, although no charges have been filed in those cases.

The alleged ringleader of the drug distribution network is Jose Manuel Barraza Jr.

The 27-year-old Lynwood man, according to the grand jury indictment, stored the Mexican shipments of marijuana in “stash houses” throughout Los Angeles before distributing the drug across the country through the mail or in 1,000-pound tractor-trailer shipments.

Labeling the huge truck shipments as paper products or electronics and disguising the marijuana smell with vinegar, baking soda and other chemicals, the group moved vast quantities of marijuana month after month, said the FBI’s Garcia.

Federal and local authorities said Tuesday that Barraza’s operation was uncovered after a shipping company in Indianapolis reported receiving a “suspicious package” from Los Angeles.

That package, received in July 2000, contained 500 pounds of marijuana, Garcia said.

The investigation was nicknamed “Operation Jaguar” after its purported ringleader was seen driving one of the luxury vehicles, Garcia said.

As the investigation unfolded, authorities alleged, Barraza, his parents, a younger brother and others moved large shipments of marijuana with no apparent fear of detection.

According to the indictment, Barraza last August allegedly spoke by phone with Tigran Madzharyan, owner of a Los Angeles-based shipping company, to discuss shipping an unspecified quantity of marijuana to New York.

After the shipment arrived on Aug. 8, the indictment claims, Barraza told his brother, Richard Barraza, to store the marijuana in a vehicle.

Over the next several weeks, the indictment said, the drug ring shipped several more tons of marijuana to locations including New York, and arranged for payments from the drug proceeds to be delivered to Mexico.

In all, authorities said Tuesday, more than 10 tons of marijuana, 41 kilograms of cocaine and more than $1 million in drug proceeds have been seized in recent weeks.

More than three tons of marijuana were seized Tuesday at a two-story pink house about a block from an elementary school in Downey.

Neighbors said they had occasionally seen a black SUV and a white truck pull up to the house in the middle of the night.

They said that several men in their 20s and 30s frequented the house.

“I had a funny idea about that house,” one neighbor said Tuesday. “There was never any women there.”

Another neighbor said, “They drove the best cars.”

More than half a dozen FBI SWAT teams took part in the raids because of information that the “stash houses” holding the marijuana shipments were guarded by armed employees of the drug operation.

Though that did not prove to be true, Garcia said, authorities did confiscate a small arsenal of weapons, including AK-47s, during the raids.

Besides Barraza, those arrested Tuesday included his parents, Manuel, 61, and Maria, 57, of Lynwood; Madzharyan, 23, of North Hollywood; Javier Bobadilla-Tovar, 42, of South Gate; Luis Eduardo Valdez-Venegas, 26, of Lynwood; Edna Cardenas, 23, of Indianapolis; Eduardo Ramirez-Gonzalez, 37, and Carmen Machada, 23, both of Nashville; Guadalupe Sosa-Carranza, 35, of Palmdale; Gabriel Rios, 30, of Fontana, and Maria Rodriguez, 32, of Lynwood.

Being sought and considered fugitives, the FBI said, are Barraza’s brother, Richard, 20, of Lynwood; Aminta Basurto, 30, of Los Angeles; and Roberto Davila, 35, of El Paso.

Sergio Osuna Guzman, 36, of San Gabriel and Franklin Cardenas, 23, of Indianapolis are in state custody.

All the defendants have been charged with conspiracy to import and distribute marijuana, charges that carry prison terms of 10 years to life.

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Times research librarian Robin Mayper contributed to this report.