Ventura County sheriff’s narcotics investigators busted a “large-scale transnational drug trafficking organization” this week that was operating a cocaine delivery service in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, authorities said.
Detectives made eight arrests and seized more than 5 pounds of cocaine, five firearms and “a significant amount of suspected drug proceeds,” sheriff’s officials announced in a news release Friday. The bust followed a five-month investigation into the drug trafficking operation.
The delivery service used drivers to supply cocaine to hundreds of people in Ventura and Los Angeles counties on a daily basis, authorities said.
The investigation launched earlier this summer revealed that 40-year-old Joel Cruz Ayala and 28-year-old Elmer Ayala-Ayala, both of Bakersfield, “were working for the organization as full-time dispatchers,” according to the news release.
The pair, detectives said, were tasked with taking incoming orders and dispatching drivers to customers.
Luis Cruz, 33, was identified as the dispatch house manager, “who was in direct communication with high-ranking members of the organization in El Salvador,” according to the sheriff’s news release.
The organization also employed multiple delivery drivers, including Wilfredo Castillo, 24, Lisandro Moreno, 22, Kevin Bonilla, 20, Jose Ayala Hernandez, 40, and Noel Cruz, 31.
All five were arrested at their residences in Panorama City and North Hills “in possession of a large amount of pre-packaged cocaine ready to be delivered, as well as large sums of suspected drug proceeds.”
Cruz Ayala, Ayala-Ayala and Cruz were located and arrested at their residences and the dispatch house in Bakersfield.
“A significant amount of evidence was located, exposing their large-scale transnational drug trafficking organization, including money transfers to higher ranking members of the organization in El Salvador,” the release states.
Detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Narcotics Unit believe the arrests will greatly disrupt the larger organization. “However, detectives continue to investigate numerous other leads which will aid them in their pursuit of dismantling it completely,” according to the release.
