91 arrested in probe of drug smuggling

They allegedly smuggled drugs in cereal boxes, in the false bottoms of water bottles, inside industrial rolls of cellophane and in special compartments welded beneath car manifolds. Despite their ingeniousness, 91 members of a ring suspected of smuggling heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine from Mexico into Washington state have been rounded up by a drug-enforcement task force, officials announced Friday.

Officers from dozens of local, state and federal agencies raided houses from Kalama, Cowlitz County, to Seattle earlier this week, making scores of arrests and confiscating heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine, eight guns and $300,000 in cash.

The raid was one of several coordinated by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Seattle Police Department. Two related earlier raids yielded additional arrests, a total of $635,000 in cash, more drugs, firearms, automobiles and three homes valued at more than $1 million, federal agents said.

At a news conference Friday at DEA headquarters in Seattle, agents displayed plastic bags of money; bricks of cocaine wrapped in electrical tape; oatmeal and children's cereal boxes with drugs hidden inside; and numerous bags of drugs.

DEA Special Agent in Charge Rodney Benson said the operation was one of the region's largest in recent memory and is expected to have a significant impact on the Seattle drug market.

"This is a very well-organized group," he said.

Two-thirds of the suspects, DEA agents say, are Mexican nationals illegally in the U.S. During the raids, 20 children were found living in the homes and had to be placed with relatives. More raids are forthcoming, agents say.

Seattle Assistant Police Chief Linda Pierce estimates those involved in the Seattle trafficking averaged $20,000 in sales daily.

The arrests culminate a two-year effort by the DEA and Seattle police that encompassed three investigations, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The initial investigation, dubbed "Dry Ice," targeted a drug-dealing organization that brought drugs in from Mexico and distributed them in Seattle, Tacoma and Yakima. A federal grand jury in Seattle on Wednesday indicted 20 people in connection with the operation.

On Thursday, officers from dozens of federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies arrested 14 of the indicted defendants. In addition, 52 other people were arrested on federal, state or immigration charges, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A second investigation, dubbed "Operation Garage Sale," resulted in the arrest of 22 people in Tacoma in early June and the seizure of 5 pounds of methamphetamine, 5 pounds of heroin, 6 kilograms of cocaine, seven guns, eight cars and $200,000 in cash. Some of the cars had special hidden compartments for transporting drugs, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The third investigation resulted in the arrest of three people in late May and the seizure of more than 25 kilos of cocaine, 3 pounds of highly pure "ice" methamphetamine, four guns and $435,000 in cash. The investigation was dubbed "Snow Dog" because of the large quantities of cocaine involved.

Nancy Bartley: 206-464-8522 or nbartley@seattletimes.com