Three Mexican nationals linked to cross-border trucking companies were indicted in federal court in San Diego on Tuesday over the discovery of a huge cache of drugs, cash and ammunition stored at an Otay Mesa shipyard , announced the US attorney’s office.
The cumulative seizure – $ 3.5 million in cash, 685 kilograms of cocaine, 24 kilograms of fentanyl, approximately 20,000 .50 caliber cartridges and hundreds of bulletproof vests – is considered the largest of its kind in the district southern California. , said federal prosecutors.
The hideout depicts the pillars of a drug trafficking empire: narcotics flowing north and illicit products flowing south, as well as American weapons to keep control over everything.
This collection belonged to the Sinaloa cartel, authorities said. The three arrested men – Jesus Burgos Arias and Tijuana, Mexico, resident of Chula Vista, Juan Alatorre Venegas and Jose Yee Perez – are charged with drug trafficking on behalf of the organization.
The case is part of a much larger investigation into cartel activity, an investigation that began nearly a decade ago in San Diego County and has resulted in charges against more than 125 people, many of them are leaders of the inner circle of the organization.
A thread led investigators to two brothers, Jorge Alberto Valenzuela Valenzuela and Gabriel Valenzuela Valenzuela, identified as high-ranking members who together own several Mexican trucking companies that they use to transport cocaine from Sinaloa, Mexico, to the States. United, according to arrest by affidavit. The trucks are also used to transport money from drug sales to Mexico, authorities said.
Burgos, Alatorre and Yee are accused of working for the brothers, according to the affidavit.
On October 15, officers observed Burgos and Jorge Valenzuela at an airport in Long Beach, preparing to board a private jet with eight suitcases. But the pilot inspected the contents of one baggage, discovering what appeared to be plastic-wrapped drug bricks, according to the affidavit.
Valenzuela was arrested on October 29 outside Boston after catching another flight from San Diego to the East Coast.
Officers put an Otay Mesa truck yard under surveillance on Friday and sheriff’s deputies conducted roadside checks on three departing vehicles: semi-trailers driven by Alatorre and Yee and a Ford pickup truck driven by Burgos.
Subsequent research of the commercial facility revealed the millions of dollars, most of them wrapped in plastic and coated with axle grease. The drugs were found in the garage, and the ammunition and bulletproof vests were found loaded into a semi-trailer – likely bound for Mexico, investigators said. An AK-47 type rifle, which was reported stolen in Los Angeles in 2017, was also seized.
Authorities have not given the exact location of the facility.
“This seizure is significant not only because of its size, but because it demonstrates the direct correlation between narcotics, illicit money and guns that fuel violence in our communities and destroy lives,” said Cardell T. Morant, Special Agent in charge of Homeland Security. Surveys. The agency worked in conjunction with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the San Diego Police Department, and the Sheriff’s Department and the United States Attorney’s Office.
The initial cartel investigation began in 2011, when authorities believed they were dealing with a small drug distribution cell in National City and Chula Vista. But the drugs go back to the cartel, and the case was expanded and continues today.
Among those who pleaded guilty were Dámaso López-Serrano, a godson of the conductor of the Sinaloa cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán; Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa, who led the cartel assassin team under the name “El Chino Antrax”; and Serafin Zambada Ortiz, a San Diego-born American citizen, son of the cartel’s co-leader general, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Last week, a former Mexican federal police officer believed to be a high-ranking member, Ramón Santoyo Cristóbal, was extradited to San Diego after an arrest last year in Rome on a 2016 warrant.
Tunnel builders, money launderers and numerous low-level associates have also been prosecuted as a result of the investigation.
While Guzmán was indicted in San Diego as part of an earlier investigation, he was ultimately prosecuted in Brooklyn. He is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado.
Kristina Davis writes for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
