- 43 pounds cocaine The Drug Enforcement Administration announced a "major investigation" involving the seizure of 110,000 fentanyl-laced pills in the Denver area. More than 20 lbs of cocaine, other illicit drugs, guns and wads of cash were seized in Adams County earlier this week and resulted in four people being arrested, officials said. - An Aurora resident was indicted for his part in a conspiracy to distribute large amounts of methamphetamine. As of March 31 in Colorado, a total of about 1.1 million fentanyl pills have been collected although DEA Special Agent Brian Besser said he believes that number has doubled since three months ago. ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - The Albuquerque Police Department is trying to get to the root of the problem when it comes to violent crime . Published: Jun. SAFFORD Safford Police arrested a man who reportedly admitted to having an estimated 40 grams of methamphetamine for "personal use.". Every single bust, and I hate to use that term, is making a substantive community impact on the life-saving front, Besser said. Court records show he's been charged with the following felonies: Ramirez' next court date is scheduled for Jan. 6. The 45-count indictment exposes the inner workings of a Mexican drug gang that was based at a market in Aurora and distributed drugs - mostly cocaine and methamphetamine - throughout the region. While conducting a series of arrests across Denver and Aurora Feb. 12, officials also seized large amounts of cash, cars and at least 10 guns, many of which were assault rifles, Phillips said. On Wednesday, Besser, the sheriffs in Arapahoe and Douglas counties, Denver police andJohn Kellner, the district attorney for Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties, announced their latest in a string of fentanyl busts, almost apologizing that fentanyl news is getting so commonplace that theyre afraid people have stopped paying attention. Published: Jun. FBI identifies Aurora woman as suspected kingpin of Mexican drug ring busted in metro area U.S. Attorney photo Authorities seized 400 pounds of methamphetamine, 15,000 fentanyl pills, five pounds. The identity of the cars driver is being kept secret to protect his family from retribution from drug cartels. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports are the primary drivers of the recent increase in opioid overdose deaths in the U.S. before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Amanda Lee Summers, 31, was arrested for sell and deliver methamphetamine to law enforcement. Dunn and Phillips praised the collaborative effort among a variety of federal agencies that helped to build the criminal case against the trafficking groups and to arrest two dozen alleged members. Tapia-Rubio is named in the court records, among 13 other people. Besser said a lot of drugs pass through Denver because of its central location, but he stressed that not everything is gloom and doom. Mills has gone before a judge and bond was set. Authorities allowed the driver who was caught ferrying a record haul of pure fentanyl powder. Robert D. Grant, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Gregory Thomas, Chief of the Aurora Police Department (APD), announced today the arrest of three individuals for violation . ROKU: add the channel from theROKU storeor by searching for KUSA. Residential rent analysis company, Rentometer, found other double-digit spikes around Colorado from 2021 to 2022 rent increased 15% in Aurora, 13% in Boulder, and shot up 18% in Fort Collins. Youth are especially vulnerable, Besser said, as they are targeted on social media to purchase these drugs creating an unparalleled accessibility.. APD makes several arrests in Social Media Drug Operation. Law enforcement seized over 110,000 counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl, 6. Courtesy of the Adams County Sheriff's Office. Example video title will go here for this video. 21, 2022 at 1:05 PM PDT. BEAUFORT COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) - Three people have been arrested in Beaufort County on drug charges and deputies say the street value of the drugs seized is . A proposed bill in the state legislature would raise the minimum age for purchasing a firearm in Colorado from 18 to 21, if passed into law. The DEA says his busts have kept 20 tons of illicit drugs off the streets . There was a 403 percent increase in the number of pounds seized of fentanyl between 2017 and last year on Colorados highways. Investigators say 12 people, most of whom were already in jail on unrelated charges prior to the drug ring investigation, were able to sneak narcotics into the jail with mail. Besser said he worries that fentanyl could soon be laced into vape products, which are already incredibly popular with many younger users. At the news conference, officials also highlighted the Colorado State Patrols recovery last month of 114 pounds of pure fentanyl on Interstate 70 near Georgetown from a vehicle headed toward Denver. In an effort to beef up hiring numbers, the city is reforming its hiring practices by adopting more relaxed standards. Officials says 30 people were indicted. Ive never seen anything like this. Kellner spoke about border security, attributing some of the problems to the ease of accessibility to the United States from the southern border. The police investigation into Mills led police to search two homes, one in the 3000 block of North Race Street and another in the 12100 block of Amherst Circle in Aurora. Jared Polis says the state is looking at ways to reduce those costs. The According to the documents, some of the drugs sold by Tapia-Rubio were brought in from Mexico, via California. A bill at the state Capitol would make some of the biggest changes to the law since it was passed more than 50 years ago. In one shipment recovered by authorities, drugs were hidden in a childs backpack and mailed through UPS to a woman in the ring who had children, Dunn said. Those 11 people are included in a federal indictment that was released later on Tuesday. What do you think. At approximately 5:20 p.m. Saturday, NSP was informed that the Burt County Sheriff's Office and Lyons Police Department were on the scene of an armed, barricaded subject at 100 State Street in Lyons. Temperatures will be slightly cooler than where we should be for this time of year. As first reported by The Denver Gazette, the largest U.S. highway seizure of pure fentanyl powder occurred June 20 on Interstate 70 near Georgetown. The civil forfeiture documents filed in federal court in Colorado name 14 people and mention there are others involved in bringing cocaine and meth from Mexico to Colorado. He will miss this weekend's NASCAR race at Las Vegas. DENVER (CBS4) - Denver police announced on Friday that they found a large supply of various illegal drugs at two homes in the Denver metro area and arrested a 59-year-old man who was allegedly planning to deal them. I called this press conference because behind the scenes there is aggressive and tenacious police work and prosecution being done to save lives and bring justice," Besser said. Jared Polis signed Colorado's new fentanyl accountability bill at a ceremony at the state Capitol in May the new law provides stricter criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of fentanyl and other drugs laced with it. About 170,000 pills were seized in April from a vehicle outside an apartment complex in Aurora. Yates is Pierce's sister. The trafficking ring funneled their profits back to Mexico, sometimes by smuggling undeclared bulk cash shipments, according to the indictment, which said members bought property in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico, to try to keep the money from being seized by U.S. authorities. Officers were called to a local hotel when housekeeping found a brown paper bag containing two plastic baggies filled with a white crystalline substance and a glass smoking pipe. Seven years after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released guidelines aimed at stopping the over-prescription of opioid painkillers, patients who need those medications to ease chronic pain have been left suffering, some to the point of suicide. They were taken by surprise by Biden's sudden announcement that he would not stop Congress from blocking D.C.'s new sentencing guidelines from going into effect. "These are usually going into the hands of our teenagers and our younger adults out there, so anytime you can get a good arrest like this, any hit that we can make that takes this out of the hands of the kids, that's great," Spayth said. AURORA, Ill. - Eighteen people were arrested and charged with numerous illegal gun and drug related felonies in Aurora Wednesday. This creates a phenomena that is extremely hard for law enforcement to stop, Brian Besser, special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration's Denver field division, told reporters Wednesday. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. Colorado law enforcement officials said Wednesday that millions of lives may have been saved after several months of undercover investigation into those suspected of distributing illegal fentanyl pills. 16) Arthur Moore, 68 years of age, of 712 James Drive in . All Rights Reserved. In an unrelated traffic stop of a vehicle headed toward Tulsa, Oklahoma, on I-70 in February, 30,000 fentanyl pills were collected. They then distributed the substances across the state. Here's what you need to know about this type of skin cancer. The latest reports from Denver Water show our snowpacks rounding towards their state averages already, and there are still two months of snow to go. Find 727 listings related to Odom Memorial Community Drug Bust in Aurora on YP.com. So it was essentially meant to throw off anyone who might have seen that, Dunn said. 24-year-old Hernan Ramirez was arrested in late December after a monthslong investigation. Its also very cheap to produce in either China or Mexico, Dunn said. A K9 team in Weld County successfully seized more than 88 pounds of methamphetamine recently, worth more than half a million dollars in street value. Sources: months -long investigation cocaine/ Meth distribution from Mex. A months-long investigation in Colorado Springs ended with the arrest of William Johns on Aug. 4. According. Douglas. Read More. Angelina Maestas posted court documents on Facebook that openly accused another member of the trafficking operation with cooperating with police. Law enforcement officials reported last month that more than 2 million dosage units of fentanyl were removed from Colorado communities so far this year. Shelly Bradbury is the courts reporter at the Denver Post. ", RELATED: Denver Health Officials Warn About Increase In Deadly Overdoses Linked To Fentanyl. Darren Weekly said he has seen the drugs flow like wildfire into Highlands Ranch and Ken Caryl neighborhoods and warned parents to be aware of what their children are doing on social media. The illicit drug has been seen on state highways more than ever before. Click here to view all charges. 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In 2021, she decided to return to local news. Authorities also recovered 10 guns during the investigation, which began in January 2019. Besser said the I-70 and I-25 corridors are where the deadly drugs head East while money heads South. 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Several other agencies, including the Aurora Police Department and the criminal investigation branch of the IRS, helped the FBI and prosecutors investigate the local cell of the cartel. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated. A deputy's knack for sussing out mules has made a lonely stretch of I-70 the top drug-bust site in Colorado Mesa County deputy Mike Miller has patrolled a stretch of desert west of Grand Junction for decades. This is a portion of the money they seized. No one is immune from this drug crisis. Authorities arrested that woman and 23 other members of two Mexican drug trafficking operations that were based in Denver and Aurora during an operation last week, Dunn said. Perry Bertsch. The Denver Police Department is launching a new program they say will help them curb crime throughout the city by starting with tracking some cars. A top commander with the Adams County Sheriff's Office will be suspended after pointing a rifle at co-workers in January. Sizemore collapsed at his home in Los Angeles last month after suffering a brain aneurysm. When bought in bulk, fentanyl pills that used to cost $8 to $10 can now be found for just $1. Ive got a news flash for you. He is listed as the owner of El Rancho Market, also raided on Thursday. "They have a bunch of Alprazolam (Xanax) and oxycodone in with other peoples names on, the thing wrapped up in money sock full of money," an officer can be heard saying on bodycam video. During the course of a year-long investigation into Vallejo-Gallos group, authorities seized more than 400 pounds of methamphetamine, five pounds of heroin, four pounds of cocaine and about 15,000 pills of fentanyl that had been disguised to look like prescription Oxycodone, officials said. 4, Clovis PD Special Enforcement Team (S.E.T.) That number was nationwide. However, groups like Vallejo-Gallos are increasingly manufacturing the potent opioid to bump their profit margins by camouflaging it as more sought-after and expensive prescription pills. Law enforcement officers made a number of arrests recently in connection to drug trafficking in Rifle and the greater Garfield County area. illicit drug in the past year. The big storm system from the southwest is still on track to move across southern New Mexico. Thats the most important thing to them. Gov. APD estimated the drugs' street value at more than $200,000. Those documents were protected by court order. Former Washington Capital forward Lars Eller is now a member of the Colorado Avalanche! 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. 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"I hope to return to the Senate later this month," the retiring senator said in a statement. (WLBT) - Two people were arrested for having possession of over $200,000 in drugs, along with a few firearms, In Hinds County on Wednesday, January 25. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. Detectives pulled off a major drug bust in the Eagle Vail area this week and arrested Matthew DeAngelo. It says that the alleged drug activity spanned from Indianapolis down to southern Indiana cities like Princeton and . Police executed a search warrant at Ramirez's house located in the 20500 block of East Buchanan Drive on Dec. 29, APD said. Greed is a traffickers main motivation. Four. Bulk fentanyl quantities like this hold the caliber of weapons of mass destruction-type concern, Besser said Wednesday. Denver Health Officials Warn About Increase In Deadly Overdoses Linked To Fentanyl. AURORA | Federal authorities on Wednesday unsealed a 30-person indictment that outlines the workings of a sophisticated drug cartel that for years was pumping hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine, fentanyl, heroin and cocaine throughout Colorado. served four search warrants in Fresno. Most street users will not purposely want to take fentanyl some do, but for the most part they dont, because of how serious it is, how its so hard to dose because a microscopic amount can be fatal and theyre fearful of that, he said. Anyone who has a tip related to illegal drug dealing in Denver can share it with police through Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867). Besser said investigators are now seeing fentanyl and other deadly synthetic analogs routinely being mixed with conventional street drugs, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines and marijuana. Today our community is safer, Phillips said. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Aurora Police said the investigation began in September after their narcotics. They also confiscated 9.4 pounds of heroin, a kilo of cocaine, four guns including an AR15 rifle and a 9 mm handgun, and an undisclosed amount of cash. Powdered cocaine is abused throughout the greater metropolitan area, and crack cocaine is abused primarily in northeastern Denver and in Aurora, just outside Denver. Adams County Sheriff's Office, Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office, Aurora Police Department, Colorado State Patrol, Commerce City . Drug kingpins dont always touch the drugs, but they do always touch the money.. AURORA | An Aurora woman has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for conspiring to transport large quantities of illicit drugs from Mexico into the U.S., according to the Department of Justice. Had these pills reached the street, thousands of unwitting end users would have been at significant risk of overdose and death as weve already seen too much of lately in Colorado.. Denver7 reporter Liz Gelardi tells us more about a drug ring hiding in plain sight. According to 18th Judicial District Attorney John Kellner, about 200,000 fentanyl pills were recovered during the investigation along with 9.4 lbs of heroin, 1 kilogram of cocaine, four guns and. Five people were discovered dead inside a Colorado apartment where a 4-month-old baby was also found alive after what police are investigating as a drug-fueled party involving fentanyl . An investigation that began with a probe into a cocaine ring has led to 19 arrests in operations that involved moving black market drugs in and out of Colorado, according to a news release from. PHOTO BY QUINCY SNOWDON/Sentinel Colorado, U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn, at the lectern, speaks with reporters Feb. 19, 2020 providing details of a massive drug bust involving Aurora suspects. (CBS4) - The U.S. Department of Justice says a drug strike force dismantled a major drug dealing operation which was working in Denver and Aurora. The Denver house is located on Race Street where Mills was arrested. The alleged network was based in Colorado and distributed drugs to several counties and cities in the region, including Denver, Aurora, Commerce City, Lakewood, and Thornton. The other people indicted on lesser charges could face prison sentences of at least 10 years. DENVER Special agents, police officers and deputy sheriffs on Thursday arrested 80 people on drug and/or gun charges, announced the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Colorado. Federal and local law enforcement busted suspected members of a Mexican organization accused of distributing cocaine and meth in Colorado and other state, sources tell 9Wants to Know. The Colorado State Patrol discovered the 114-pound mega-haul hidden underneath a trap door beneath the front seats of a vehicle during a traffic stop. In my opinion, bulk fentanyl quantities like this hold the caliber of weapons of mass destruction-type concern when we take into consideration the worst possible outcomes of this poison being pushed out in mass to our communities, said Brian Besser, the special agent in charge of the DEAs Denver Field Division.