Pubdate: Wed, 26 Jan 2000
Source: Oakland Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact:  66 Jack London Sq., Oakland, CA 94607
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Author: Harry Harris, Staff Writer

MINOR ARREST EVOLVED INTO MAJOR BUST 

66 Kilos Of Cocaine Netted Sets Record 

OAKLAND - It started, like most large narcotics seizures do, with the
arrest of a small dealer - in this instance, a man in his 20s selling up to
$400 worth of cocaine daily to a handful of customers on a West Oakland
street corner.

When it ended Saturday at a Turlock four-plex after a three-week
investigation, Oakland narcotics officers had made their largest drug
seizure ever: 66 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of more than $6
million.

The seizure also put a clog in a major drug pipeline that stretched from a
small Mexican town to the expanses of the Bay Area, police said.

"It shows that if you have the right number of officers and teamwork, you
can do a lot of things," said veteran Oakland narcotics investigator John
Gutierrez, who headed the probe.

Oakland police narcotics investigators ran the case, joined by Community
Policing officers, a joint Oakland Police/federal DEA Task Force, the
Alameda County Narcotics Task Force, Stanislaus County narcotics officers
and Turlock police.

Gutierrez singled out Oakland narcotics Sgts. Bruce Brock and Kevin
O'Rourke and fellow narcotics investigators Eddie Bermudez and Lupe Chacon
for playing key roles. "I had like the Super Bowl team with me and we won,"
he said.

Gutierrez recently was reassigned to his fifth tour in the Oakland
vice/narcotics unit by Police Chief Richard Word, who as part of his
emphasis on street-level drug trafficking has doubled the number of
investigators in the unit to 14.

The chief, himself a former undercover narcotics officer, said Tuesday the
bust "was a nice surprise," adding it showed the strategy had paid off.
"When you put people where the problems are, these are the kind of results
you get," Word said.

Even Gutierrez, a police officer for 20 years, did not know he would hit
pay dirt so quickly. The routine arrest of the street dealer New Year's Eve
first led to a plain-looking house - except for the surveillance camera
mounted on the outside - near 34th and Helen streets, a neighborhood dubbed
"Dog Town."

On Jan. 19, police arrested the residents of the house, Francisco Quinonez,
33, and his wife, Novia Hernandez, 28.

Quinonez, Gutierrez said, was a major East Bay supplier who sold more than
$100,000 worth of cocaine a week to local dealers from another nondescript
house he kept on 21st Street. Police found almost a kilogram of cocaine at
the two homes and Quinonez and his wife were charged with conspiracy to
distribute drugs, transportation of drugs and possession of drugs for sale.

From those arrests, police learned a large cocaine shipment from Southern
California was en route to Oakland. Last Thursday, four "mules," including
a 14-year-old girl, were arrested after their car was stopped in West
Oakland and two back-seat passengers were found to be literally sitting on
41/2 pounds of cocaine they had covered with a blanket, Gutierrez said.

Police quickly determined the cocaine had been picked up in Turlock, a city
of 42,200 in Stanislaus County in the Central Valley known more for farming
than as a drug distribution point.

By Thursday evening, Oakland officers, now joined by Stanislaus County
narcotics investigators and Turlock police, were watching a four-plex in
Turlock on North Soderquist Drive.

Authorities say that at about 1 p.m. Friday, after obtaining a search
warrant from a local judge, authorities broke down a rear door at one of
the units and stormed into the kitchen. Sitting at a table packaging bricks
of cocaine were Horacio Ontiveros, 28, and Nazario Larios, 46, "who were
extremely surprised to see us; they were like deers caught in headlights
their eyes got so big," Gutierrez said. A search of the unit turned up 32
kilograms of cocaine, including some hidden in baseboards under a sink as
well as more stored in a secret wall cabinet, Gutierrez said. A loaded
semiautomatic pistol and $120,000 in cash was also found.

The cash was part of $300,000, the regular amount picked up every other day
for delivery back to Tecate, Mexico, where the major kingpin of the ring
lives, Gutierrez said.

The interviewing skills of Bermudez and Chacon paid off when it was learned
that more cocaine originating from Tecate was due in Turlock after a stop
at Chula Vista, Gutierrez said.

About 4 a.m. Saturday, a new pickup truck arrived at the four-plex. Hidden
officers watched the driver, Ebaristo Avila, 46, pound on the door of the
raided unit yelling in Spanish for someone to open up. He too was
"extremely surprised," Gutierrez said, when he was greeted by police. The
three men are being held on several drug charges.

A search of the truck yielded another 34 kilograms of cocaine in secret
compartments, Gutierrez said. Gutierrez said the cocaine was destined for
delivery to dealers across the Bay Area. Investigators know that because
police spent most of Friday after the raid at the apartment fielding dozens
of phone calls from dealers placing orders for deliveries - orders,
Gutierrez said, that "will never be filled."
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