LOS ANGELES
Eight suspects were arrested for allegedly being involved in a drug trafficking organization operating in Los Angeles and Riverside counties, according to officials.
The drug organization distributed large quantities of methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and other narcotics across the U.S., officials stated.
The defendants arrested Thursday – and nine others who are still being sought by authorities – are charged in a 20-count indictment that outlines an 18-month investigation that led to multiple seizures of narcotics, firearms, and approximately $1.5 million in drug proceeds.
The indictment alleges that the drug ring was headed by Rigoberto Sanchez Martinez, 36, of Perris, who obtained wholesale quantities of narcotics, oversaw their storage, and coordinated distribution of the drugs to locations that included the states of Washington and New York.
Martinez was one of the eight defendants arrested.
The first major seizure in the investigation, according to the indictment, was on May 25, 2018, when authorities recovered approximately 54 kilograms of methamphetamine, nearly a kilogram of cocaine, and more than 25 kilograms of marijuana from a “stash house” near Whittier High School that was maintained by defendants Rogelio Barajas, 39, who is a fugitive, and Irene Equigua, 40, who was arrested Thursday.
Some of the narcotics seized by investigators were stored in coolers that had been buried in the backyard of the residence.
On the same day law enforcement seized the narcotics in Whittier, Martinez called the operator of another stash house and instructed him to take narcotics and drug proceeds and “wrap them and cover them with items such as Vicks VapoRub, coffee, pepper, and powdered soap, dig a deep hole, and bury the drugs in the ground,” the indictment alleges.
During the following year, investigators made several other seizures, including just over $240,000 in cash and numerous firearms seized from a drug courier returning from a trip to Washington; $1,041,970 in cash recovered from a residence in Long Beach.
Also, $118,800 in cash seized from a drug courier who had traveled from New York with the intent to purchase five kilograms of cocaine from Martinez, the indictment states.
Authorities made additional seizures of narcotics that the indictment directly links to Martinez.
On May 28, 2019, authorities seized 3.1 kilograms of methamphetamine, nearly 21 kilograms of cocaine, nearly 10 kilograms of fentanyl, and nearly 9 kilograms of heroin from a storage facility in Fontana, the indictment states.
On September 13, 2019, at another stash house that Martinez had rented in Whitter, law enforcement seized more than 13 kilograms of methamphetamine and approximately $31,000 in cash, according to officials.
Defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
This case is being investigated by the Los Angeles Strike Force, which was formed in 2014 to target Mexican drug cartels that use the Los Angeles metropolitan region as a primary hub for the distribution of narcotics across the United States. The goals of the Strike Force are to target high-level narcotics traffickers, disrupt and dismantle the cartels’ narcotics trafficking and related money laundering activities, and arrest and prosecute major drug traffickers.