Early in the morning of August 7, a coordinated force of law enforcement officers descended in several locations across the San Fernando Valley, where they carried out inspection orders linked to one of the largest drug trafficking investigations in the region.
Under the SWAT Police Department’s Special Investigation Unit, Su-9 units, drone operators, crime scene investigators, and agents from the Ventura office in the drug control department, the multi-site operation targeted an advanced drug store (DTO) that is suspected of overcoming the area with deadly drugs.
Orders were offered in two housing, one on Morella Street in North Hollywood and another in De Silis Place in Van Nuweiz, as well as two companies, one in Northdge on Resda Street and another in northern Hollywood on Lancarm Street. Fast tactical raids followed a year and a half, which revealed a sprawling network that extends to the provinces of Los Angeles, Fentura and San Bernardino.
According to the authorities, investigators follow a fleet of vehicles associated with DTO trips, which are approaching daily to the Simi Valley and the surrounding societies, providing huge amounts of fentanel, metamvitamine, heroin and cocaine. The frequency and size of the shipments led to the concern of officials who fear fatal drug capabilities in the streets.
After months of monitoring, intelligence collection, and close coordination between local and federal agencies, notes aim to dismantle the distribution centers that supported this illegal process.
The raids were crowned with the arrest of five individuals: Jorge M. Chavez, 26; Angel Omar Garcia, 30; Arturo Giulio Sanchez, 37; And Victor Manuel Correa, 22, are all from North Hollywood; And Jorge Valdivia, 26, from Van Nuwiz. All of them were booked in the head prison for Ventura on charges of felony including the possession and transfer of control materials for sale, crimes related to metamvitamine, and criminal conspiracy.
Researchers have regained a disturbing distance: 22 lbs of fentanel, approximately 19 lbs of methamphetamine, 4.5 pounds of heroin, one pound of cocaine, and 12,000 fake oxicodone pills coated with fentanel. Officials also seized drug filling materials, digital standards, and 129,700 dollars, suspected of pharmaceutical sales.
The drug control department emphasizes the extreme danger of fentanel, which is estimated that at least milligrams can be fatal. It can result from 22 lbs seized in this process about five million fatal doses, which confirms the decisive threat of public health formed by these drugs. The total street value of the seized drugs is estimated at $ 1.4 million.
The investigation is still ongoing, as the authorities are not possible to disrupt drug trafficking networks and protect societies from the devastating effect of misuse of opioids and activation.