Law enforcement is dismantling a cross-country drug trafficking organization that they say smuggles drugs through San Diego and distributes them across the country.
A federal grand jury indictment charges 14 people with conspiring to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl – an opiate more powerful than morphine. Eleven of those suspects were arrested in Southern California, New York and North Carolina Tuesday as local, federal and state law enforcement served a number of search warrants.
During the crackdown, officials also seized firearms, 15 pounds of methamphetamine, 8.8 pounds of cocaine and 2.2 pounds of fentanyl.
The suspected drug traffickers, who prosecutors say have ties to the Sinaloa cartel, imported their illicit products from Mexico, smuggled them into San Diego and used a network in California, North Carolina, New Jersey and New York to send them throughout the U.S., according to an affidavit.
Marketed as a “super high” additive, the rise of fentanyl is most concerning to law enforcement because just a small amount, even a few grains, can prove fatal.
In the medical field, the drug is used as an anesthetic in surgery and is given to people with chronic pain, including end-stage cancer patients.
Deadly doses of fentanyl can be absorbed through the skin just by touching it, according to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.
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“All of these drugs are dangerous, but fentanyl is particularly troubling because it is lethal in very small quantities,” said Duffy in a release. “We will keep striving to interrupt the supply and keep users from making a tragic mistake.”
The Drug Enforcement Agency has issued a warning to local police departments to look out for “killer heroin,” a 50-50 mix of heroin and fentanyl.
Fentanyl-laced drugs are nicknamed “Bud Light,” “Theraflu,” and “Income Tax.”
The court documents say the trafficking operation as a family one, allegedly led by Corona, California resident Huge Adalberto Adrian Ramirez. His wife Maria Ayala is accused of collecting drug payments in the form of structured deposits into bank accounts under her name. Their son Hugo Norberto-Adrian Jr. and daughter Crystal Adrian are also suspected of playing a part.
New York rapper Sonja Shenelle Holder, known as “Sonja Blade,” was charged alongside another suspect, Paul Dwight Doyley, accused of conspiring to purchase cocaine and fentanyl from Ramirez and his son to distribute it in New Jersey.
The 14 suspects listed in the indictment range in age from 19 to 49 and live in Corona, California; Ontario, California; Huntington Park, California; Booklyn, New York; and Ashbury Park, New Jersey.
Many are being prosecuted in federal court in San Diego, making their first appearances Wednesday.
