Task Force Breaks Up Drug Ring

An undercover Spokane detective smashed a Mexican drug ring that used cars with secret compartments to smuggle narcotics to the Inland Northwest, authorities said.

The 14-month investigation - which ranged from Spokane to Los Angeles - culminated last week with the arrests of four men and the seizure of several guns, thousands in cash and nine kilograms of nearly pure cocaine, Sheriff John Goldman said Thursday.

The recovered cocaine is worth about $120,000, Goldman said. Cut down and packaged for sale on the street, the price would balloon to nearly $1 million, he said.

“Those drugs were headed to the Inland Northwest,” Goldman said.

Instead, four Mexican nationals are in jail waiting for a federal grand jury to hand down drug-smuggling indictments against them, and a fifth is being sought.

Arrested in Los Angeles on Oct. 23 were Antonio Garcia, 34; Jose Manuel Pavon, 30; and Marionde Jesus Guerrero-Guerrero, 31. Jesus Bustos, 30, was arrested in Yakima the next day.

Abel Bustos, age unknown, is on the run and considered a fugitive, Goldman said.

The investigation started last August when Spokane police arrested a suspected drug dealer.

That man, whom Goldman did not identify, had significant ties to Los Angeles drug dealers who were sending narcotics to Spokane.

Goldman said he gave the Spokane Regional Drug Task Force information that helped detectives identify them. The sheriff refused to say if prosecutors had cut a deal with the informer for his cooperation.

The task force is made up of investigators from local police and sheriff’s departments, and the Washington State Patrol.

A short time later, an undercover task force detective posing as a drug dealer contacted the suppliers, Goldman said.

Goldman did not give the detective’s name because he did not want to jeopardize his cover.

Over the next year, the detective bought heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine from four people in Yakima, where, Goldman said, the smugglers had their “base of operations.”

The detective also traveled to Los Angeles to talk to the suppliers, who brought the drugs into Los Angeles from Mexico, then shipped them to Yakima and on to Spokane.

The suppliers transported the narcotics in “ingenious” compartments inside cars and pickup trucks, Goldman said.

Spokane sheriff’s deputies showed reporters one of the vehicles Thursday.

The pickup, seized during the arrests, had a narrow metal box welded just behind the passenger cab. The box had a removable top.

The edge of a camper shell covering the truck’s bed neatly concealed the top of the box, making it virtually undetectable. When the suppliers reached their destination, they simply slid the shell back a few feet to gain access to the box.

“You wouldn’t even think to look there,” sheriff’s Lt. David Wiyrick said. “They even painted (the box) the same color as the truck so it looks like it’s been there forever.”

As a result of the sting, border guards will be on the lookout for similar setups on other cars entering the United States from Mexico, Goldman said.

, DataTimes