Police Jail Anaheim Man in Breakup of Cocaine Ring

An Anaheim man described as a major international cocaine connection has been arrested in the breakup of a cocaine ring. Officers seized 60 pounds of the illicit drug worth up to $8 million, authorities said reported.

Abraham Rojas, 51, a Colombian national living in an Anaheim condominium, allegedly headed the organization which police said has resulted in at least $50 million in sales to street dealers.

Bell-Cudahay Police Detective Jerry Guzzetta, who headed the four-month investigation, said 30 other suspects in Fullerton, Anaheim, Bell, Huntington Park, Los Angeles, Gardena, La Puente and Palm Desert were also arrested on a variety of narcotics counts.

“We believe that this Rojas was a major (cocaine business) connection between Colombia, Miami and Los Angeles,” Guzzetta said.

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He added that Rojas, who was in the United States on a business visa, used a Fullerton currency exchange agency known as Luier Inc. as a front for the wholesale drug operation. The agency has since been closed down by the Internal Revenue Service.

Rojas was being held in Orange County Jail on $1-million bail, police said. The other suspects arrested included 13 other Colombian nationals, six Jamaicans, five Cubans, three Mexicans and two U.S. citizens, all picked up in a weeklong series of raids that ended Tuesday.

Guzzetta, the sole narcotics investigator in the 50-man Bell-Cudahay department, said the investigation and arrests could not have succeeded without the cooperation of a number of other local and federal law enforcement agencies, including the Anaheim and Fullerton police departments.

In addition to cocaine, with an estimated street value of $6 million to $8 million, officers confiscated $300,000 in cash, $80,000 worth of jewelry, an arsenal of 20 firearms, a number of portable two-way radios, mobile phones and other sophisticated communications equipment, and 15 automobiles, including a 1985 Porsche, a 1985 BMW, and a late-model Mercedes Benz, officers said.

Guzzetta said the Internal Revenue Service also has instituted proceedings to seize real estate and out-of-state bank accounts in the names of the suspects.

The investigation was launched four months ago when Bell-Cudahay officers served a Madera County warrant for possession of hashish on two men and instead found 7 1/2 pounds of cocaine. Several other suspects still are being sought, Guzzetta said.