SANTA FE SPRINGS - Five people were arrested and nearly 700 pounds of cocaine seized in what officials on Thursday called the largest cocaine bust in the state in recent memory, spanning from the Inland Empire to Los Angeles County.

Officials seized 110 pounds of cocaine during a traffic stop in Victorville on Tuesday evening, which led them to a house in the 11400 block of Charlesworth Road in Santa Fe Springs. That’s where investigators seized 563 pounds of cocaine on Wednesday.

Three people were arrested during the traffic stop and two were arrested at the home in Santa Fe Springs with alleged ties to the Sinaloa Cartel, an international drug-trafficking and organized crime group based in Mexico.
“This is one of the biggest ones I’ve seen in many years,” said Carlos Mendoza, deputy director for the Los Angeles Interagency Metropolitan Police Apprehension Crime Task (IMPACT) Force.

The bust was the culmination of a month-long investigation by L.A. IMPACT, a multi-agency team made up of officers and agents from numerous federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

Eligio Alvarez Manriquez, 24, Jose Manuel Lopez, 22, and Cintia Ferro Barazza, 24, all of Victorville, were arrested Tuesday and Eddie Perez, 41, and Jose Garcia Samano, 39, both of Santa Fe Springs, were arrested Wednesday, Mendoza said. (Souce: Los Angeles Daily News)

Story Date: June 8, 2015