DRUGS, AMMO, $3.5M IN CASH SEIZED FROM OTAY TRUCK YARD
3 Mexican nationals arrested as part of Sinaloa Cartel probe
Three Mexican nationals tied to cross-border trucking companies were charged in San Diego federal court Tuesday following the discovery of a massive cache of drugs, cash and ammunition stockpiled at an Otay Mesa truck yard, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The cumulative seizure — $3.5 million cash, 1,500 pounds of cocaine, more than 50 pounds of fentanyl, about 20,000 rounds of .50 caliber ammunition and hundreds of body armor vests — is believed to be the largest of its kind in the Southern District of California, federal prosecutors said.
The stash illustrates the pillars of a drug-trafficking empire: narcotics that f low north and illicit proceeds that f low south, along with U.S. weaponry to maintain control over it all.
This collection belonged to the Sinaloa Cartel, authorities said. And then three men who were arrested — Jesus Burgos Arias, a Chula Vista resident, and Tijuana residents Juan
Alatorre Venegas and Jose Yee Perez — are accused of trafficking drugs on the organization’s behalf.
The case is part of a much broader investigation into the cartel’s activities, a probe that began in San Diego County nearly a decade ago and has resulted in charges against more than 125 people, many of them leaders in the inner circle of the organization.
One thread led investigators to a pair of brothers, Jorge Alberto Valenzuela Valenzuela and Gabriel Valenzuela Valenzuela, who were identified as highranking members who together own multiple Mexican trucking companies that they use to transport cocaine from Sinaloa, Mexico, into the U.S., according to an arrest affidavit. The trucks are also used to ferry cash from the drug sales
back to Mexico, authorities said.
Burgos, Alatorre and Yee are accused of working for the brothers, according to the affidavit.
On Oct. 15, agents watched Burgos and Jorge Valenzuela at an airport in Long Beach, preparing to board a private jet with eight suitcases. But the pilot inspected the contents of one piece of luggage, discovering what appeared to be bricks of drugs wrapped in plastic, according to the affidavit.
Valenzuela was arrested outside Boston on Oct. 29 after another f light from San Diego to the East Coast.
On Friday, agents put an Otay Mesa truck yard under surveillance, and sheriff ’s deputies conducted traffic
stops on three departing vehicles: Alatorre and Yee were driving tractor-trailers and Burgos was behind the wheel of a Ford pickup.
A subsequent search of the commercial facility revealed the millions of dollars, most of it wrapped in plastic and coated in axle grease. The drugs were found in the garage, and the ammo and body armor were found loaded into a tractortrailer — likely bound for Mexico, investigators said. An AK-47-style rif le, which had been reported stolen in Los Angeles in 2017, was also seized.
Authorities did not give the exact location of the facility.
“This seizure is significant not just because of its size, but because it demonstrates the direct correlation between narcotics, illicit money, and guns that
drives violence in our communities and destroys lives,” said Cardell T. Morant, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations. The agency worked jointly with the Drug Enforcement Administration, San Diego Police Department, Sheriff ’s Department and U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The initial investigation into the cartel began in 2011, when authorities thought they were dealing with a small-scale drug distribution cell in National City and Chula Vista. But the drugs were traced back to the cartel, and the case expanded and continues today.
Among those who took guilty pleas were Damaso Lopez-Serrano, a godson of Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán; Jose Rodrigo Arechiga Gamboa, who led the cartel’s assassin squad
as “El Chino Antrax”; and Serafin Zambada Ortiz, a U.S. citizen born in San Diego who is a son of the cartel’s at-large co-leader, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada.
Last week, a former Mexican federal police officer alleged to be a high-ranking member, Ramon Santoyo Cristobal, was extradited to San Diego following an arrest last year in Rome on a 2016 warrant.
There have also been tunnel builders, money launderers and numerous low-level associates prosecuted as a result.
While Guzmán had been indicted in San Diego as part of a prior investigation, he was ultimately prosecuted in Brooklyn. He is serving a life sentence in a super-maximum security prison in Colorado.