9 valley residents indicted in drug case
By JOHN ELLIS
THE FRESNO BEE
Last Updated: July 12, 2007, 09:20:00 AM PDT
Federal authorities say they've broken up a major drug trafficking organization with ties to the Nuestra Familia prison gang.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento announced a federal indictment Wednesday against more than two dozen people from across Northern and Central California and one person from Ohio. They were part of an investigation spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Stockton Violent Crime Task Force.
Those indicted include five men from Los Banos and one from Merced.
That indictment follows a June 7 indictment unsealed in Fresno that named eight people -- five from Bakersfield and three from Fontana, a city in San Bernardino County. The earlier indictment came from a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation that focused on Bakersfield.
"This is a monster case," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Escobar, one of the federal prosecutors on the case.
She said the case is significant because it alleges that those facing charges aren't just street-level dealers but are in higher positions of authority in the gang.
The two indictments came from separate investigations that joined together after authorities shared information and noticed similarities and connections, Escobar said.
Federal authorities said the DEA's investigation -- dubbed "Operation Dictator" -- focused on the activities of Fidel Ramon Castro, a 33-year-old convicted drug trafficker who operated an urban clothing store called Geez Clothing in Bakersfield.
They allege that Castro and his associates obtained cocaine smuggled into Southern California from Mexico and then sold it to drug trafficking organizations. One of those organizations was the Mario Diaz Drug Trafficking Organization.
At that time, the FBI's Stockton Violent Crime Task Force along with the San Joaquin County Metropolitan Narcotics Task Force and the Stockton Police Department were conducting an investigation dubbed "Operation Valley Star," which was looking at the Diaz operation.
Authorities say the Diaz operation was responsible for distributing large amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy throughout Northern and Central California, with distribution channels reaching to other U.S. cities such as Warren, Ohio, and Atlanta, Ga.
The Diaz operation, authorities said, operated under the Nuestra Familia, a violent Hispanic prison gang based within the California prison system whose members exert control over street-level Norteño gang members engaged in drug trafficking and violent crime.
Diaz operated an urban clothing store in Los Banos with the same name as Castro's shop in Bakersfield -- Geez Clothing.
Authorities seized more than 30 kilograms of cocaine, 200 marijuana plants and around 150 pounds of methamphetamine in the two investigations. Also seized were an Uzi submachine gun, five vehicles and around $80,000 in cash.
Among those indicted were nine central San Joaquin Valley residents: Diaz, 34, Jason Michael Stewart Hanson, 33, Alvaro Cobain Gomez, 37, Andrea Cadena, 29, and Valdemar Salazar Cambunga, 49, all of Los Banos; Larry Sixto Amaro, 40, of Hanford; Edward Fuentes, 27, of Merced; Ernesto Bravo Tejeda, 37, of Madera; Leo Torres, 34, of Dos Palos.
Nobody arrested in the massive drug bust was from Fresno, but Fresno police detective Tony Gates, a detective in the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium -- an anti-gang squad -- said Fresno's Bulldog gang grew out of the Norteño gang, and Fresno still has a Norteño presence.
"Fresno was a Norteño town in the '70s," Gates said. In the mid- to late-'80s the Bulldogs broke away, he said, because they didn't believe in the ranked structure prevalent with the Norteños.
By JOHN ELLIS
THE FRESNO BEE
Last Updated: July 12, 2007, 09:20:00 AM PDT
Federal authorities say they've broken up a major drug trafficking organization with ties to the Nuestra Familia prison gang.
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Sacramento announced a federal indictment Wednesday against more than two dozen people from across Northern and Central California and one person from Ohio. They were part of an investigation spearheaded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Stockton Violent Crime Task Force.
Those indicted include five men from Los Banos and one from Merced.
That indictment follows a June 7 indictment unsealed in Fresno that named eight people -- five from Bakersfield and three from Fontana, a city in San Bernardino County. The earlier indictment came from a Drug Enforcement Agency investigation that focused on Bakersfield.
"This is a monster case," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Escobar, one of the federal prosecutors on the case.
She said the case is significant because it alleges that those facing charges aren't just street-level dealers but are in higher positions of authority in the gang.
The two indictments came from separate investigations that joined together after authorities shared information and noticed similarities and connections, Escobar said.
Federal authorities said the DEA's investigation -- dubbed "Operation Dictator" -- focused on the activities of Fidel Ramon Castro, a 33-year-old convicted drug trafficker who operated an urban clothing store called Geez Clothing in Bakersfield.
They allege that Castro and his associates obtained cocaine smuggled into Southern California from Mexico and then sold it to drug trafficking organizations. One of those organizations was the Mario Diaz Drug Trafficking Organization.
At that time, the FBI's Stockton Violent Crime Task Force along with the San Joaquin County Metropolitan Narcotics Task Force and the Stockton Police Department were conducting an investigation dubbed "Operation Valley Star," which was looking at the Diaz operation.
Authorities say the Diaz operation was responsible for distributing large amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, and ecstasy throughout Northern and Central California, with distribution channels reaching to other U.S. cities such as Warren, Ohio, and Atlanta, Ga.
The Diaz operation, authorities said, operated under the Nuestra Familia, a violent Hispanic prison gang based within the California prison system whose members exert control over street-level Norteño gang members engaged in drug trafficking and violent crime.
Diaz operated an urban clothing store in Los Banos with the same name as Castro's shop in Bakersfield -- Geez Clothing.
Authorities seized more than 30 kilograms of cocaine, 200 marijuana plants and around 150 pounds of methamphetamine in the two investigations. Also seized were an Uzi submachine gun, five vehicles and around $80,000 in cash.
Among those indicted were nine central San Joaquin Valley residents: Diaz, 34, Jason Michael Stewart Hanson, 33, Alvaro Cobain Gomez, 37, Andrea Cadena, 29, and Valdemar Salazar Cambunga, 49, all of Los Banos; Larry Sixto Amaro, 40, of Hanford; Edward Fuentes, 27, of Merced; Ernesto Bravo Tejeda, 37, of Madera; Leo Torres, 34, of Dos Palos.
Nobody arrested in the massive drug bust was from Fresno, but Fresno police detective Tony Gates, a detective in the Multi-Agency Gang Enforcement Consortium -- an anti-gang squad -- said Fresno's Bulldog gang grew out of the Norteño gang, and Fresno still has a Norteño presence.
"Fresno was a Norteño town in the '70s," Gates said. In the mid- to late-'80s the Bulldogs broke away, he said, because they didn't believe in the ranked structure prevalent with the Norteños.
