Ventura County authorities and agents from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) arrested seven people on March 16 after an investigation of a major drug trafficking organization.
The Ventura County Combined Agency Team (VCAT) and the DEA Los Angeles Field Division-Ventura Field Office revealed that Homero Diaz of Bakersfield was responsible for trafficking methamphetamine and fraudulent prescription pills into Ventura County.
The fraudulent prescription pills contain the deadly drug fentanyl and are pressed to look like prescription oxycodone pills.
Narcotics detectives and uniformed deputies assigned to the Camarillo Patrol Station, arrested 33-year-old Diaz, and six of his co-conspirators on federal charges of possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance.
The arrests were made in Camarillo, where Diaz was coordinating a delivery of fentanyl and methamphetamine. The other suspects arrested were Manuel Martinez (23) of Ventura, Apolinar Mena (29) of Compton, Francisco Placencia (27) of Compton, Antonio DeJesus Santana (30) of Riverside, Jesus Varela (27) of Torrance, and Jaime Gomez Lopez (28) of Compton.
In conjunction with the arrests, federal and state officials seized approximately 50,000 fentanyl pills and 45 pounds of methamphetamine from the three cars the suspects had arrived in.
This amount of methamphetamine and fentanyl has an approximate street value of $230,000.
All seven suspects were booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles for Federal drug trafficking violations. They made their initial appearance in court on March 17, 2022.
The indictment contains allegations that each defendant had committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.