Local News in Brief : Drugs, 3 Suspects Seized
Undercover officers seized 460 pounds of cocaine, valued at $42 million, and arrested three drug-trafficking suspects, authorities said Wednesday.
The seizures and arrests were made Tuesday night in Santa Monica, Westwood and on a 160-acre horse ranch in the Riverside County desert community of San Jacinto, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Kathrine Nielsen said.
The arrests were made by federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents and undercover sheriff’s narcotics detectives.
Roughly 464 pounds of cocaine were found when Hernando Nogura, 30, was arrested at a downtown Santa Monica building, Nielsen said. Nogura’s wife, Marie, 32, was arrested a short time later at the couple’s Westwood apartment.
Working on “information developed from those arrests,” authorities were led to the horse ranch, where 16 AR-15 rifles, 17 AK-47 rifles, “numerous other weapons” and ammunition were discovered and a third suspect, Jose Lopez, 22, was arrested, Nielsen said.
All three were booked on suspicion of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and held in lieu of $1-million bail each.
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