I got a tip today about an ICE bust of an auto body shop in Santa Ana. But when I searched for this on the Internet it turned out to be an even bigger deal. Apparently this shop was part of a heroin smuggling ring – and it sits right in the Renaissance Plan area. What a revolting development! It might be time for a new slogan for Santa Ana – “Orange County’s Heroin Headquarters!”
Here are excerpts from an article by the O.C. Register:
Police and immigration agents arrested 23 people and seized 1.5 kilograms of heroin during a series of raids Wednesday that targeted a suspected international drug ring.
Investigators believe the organization smuggled brown heroin from Mexico, stored it at locations throughout Orange County, and distributed it across the state. They identified Francisco Javier Valencia-Contreras, the owner of Rollin Auto Collision in Santa Ana, as the suspected ringleader.
The raids Wednesday targeted nine homes in Santa Ana and one in Garden Grove, as well as Rollin Auto Collision. Investigators seized 1.5 kilos of heroin worth about $30,000 on the streets, $25,000 in cash and several weapons, including a shotgun, according to a joint statement issued by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Santa Ana Police Department.
Cpl. Jose Gonzalez of the Santa Ana Police Department said police “are still looking for some other outstanding suspects,” but would not give further details or say how many.
Twenty of the 23 people arrested during the raids Wednesday were from Santa Ana. The others were from Garden Grove, San Clemente and Huntington Beach. They were all charged with conspiracy to possess heroin for distribution and sale.
That’s a bit dramatic and don’t think this is unique to a particular city. Nevertheless, this bust will hopefully be a step in the right direction in eliminating more of the criminal element that has long had a footing in Santa Ana.
I wouldn’t know too much about whether SA is the heroin HQ of OC, but the city does have certain elements that would make it an obvious place to distribute narcotics (freeway access, low income population that often turns to grey area/under the table businesses, relatively young population, et cetera).
1.5 kilos?! Hardly a kingpin. That’s a regular weekend for me.
The sad thing is that a few bad heroin users/sellers give all of them a bad name!
Yo Adriana –
Let’s focus on all CRIME – white collar and gang-related. White collar crime has its strong footing in some of our finer communities.
Get Real.
So, what is Michelle Martinez going to do about this?
It has been known for many years that SA has been a major hub of trafficing in SoCal. I find it tragic that it has taken so many years for this to actualy be addressed
anonymous, I don’t doubt that white collar crime isn’t a problem in Santa Ana as well. I would bet that white collar crime is an even bigger problem in a city like Irvine or even Newport Beach.
My statement is real. Let’s face it… on the surface, Santa Ana has a lot of the elements a narco criminal would look for…
Why should we pretend that Santa Ana does not have a reputation for drugs?
What the Mayor and the Council going to do about this should be the question. Attacking Martinez or other counci members is not going to solve the issues in Santa Ana.
People on this blog love to throw stones but don’t come with solutions to solve the problems. If you want to make a differnce maybe you should run for office. Talk is cheap…
The problem isn’t the addicts its the way this country police address the issue you see the government makes most of the money on the war on drugs and its real simple if anyone really gave a crap we would do what Portugal did 3 yrs ago since then50% of the heroin addicts now sober and happy sooner or later we will follow suit or were gonna be seen for what amarica really is a country run by criminal drug dealers.