Ventura County sheriff’s narcotics investigators busted a “large-scale transnational drug trafficking group” this week that was working a cocaine supply service in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, authorities stated.
Detectives made eight arrests and seized greater than 5 kilos of cocaine, 5 firearms and “a major quantity of suspected drug proceeds,” sheriff’s officers introduced in a information launch Friday. The bust adopted a five-month investigation into the drug trafficking operation.
The supply service used drivers to produce cocaine to lots of of individuals in Ventura and Los Angeles counties every day, authorities stated.
The investigation launched earlier this summer time revealed that 40-year-old Joel Cruz Ayala and 28-year-old Elmer Ayala-Ayala, each of Bakersfield, “had been working for the group as full-time dispatchers,” in response to the information launch.
The pair, detectives stated, had been tasked with taking incoming orders and dispatching drivers to clients.
Luis Cruz, 33, was recognized because the dispatch home supervisor, “who was in direct communication with high-ranking members of the group in El Salvador,” in response to the sheriff’s information launch.
The group additionally employed a number of supply drivers, together with Wilfredo Castillo, 24, Lisandro Moreno, 22, Kevin Bonilla, 20, Jose Ayala Hernandez, 40, and Noel Cruz, 31.
All 5 had been arrested at their residences in Panorama Metropolis and North Hills “in possession of a considerable amount of pre-packaged cocaine able to be delivered, in addition to giant sums of suspected drug proceeds.”
Cruz Ayala, Ayala-Ayala and Cruz had been situated and arrested at their residences and the dispatch home in Bakersfield.
“A major quantity of proof was situated, exposing their large-scale transnational drug trafficking group, together with cash transfers to increased rating members of the group in El Salvador,” the discharge states.
Detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Narcotics Unit consider the arrests will drastically disrupt the bigger group. “Nevertheless, detectives proceed to research quite a few different leads which can assist them of their pursuit of dismantling it fully,” in response to the discharge.