San Diego
Fifteen people have been indicted on federal charges of conspiring to distribute nearly 1,400 pounds of cocaine potentially worth millions of dollars by transporting it north from San Diego in sleek sports cars driven by nattily dressed men, prosecutors said Monday.
In an indictment returned last Friday, prosecutors alleged that the cars and the appearance of the drivers were supposed to deflect agents’ suspicion at San Onofre Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 5. The cocaine was en route from San Diego to Orange and Los Angeles counties, prosecutors said.
The cocaine--646 kilograms, or about 1,420 pounds, in four separate convoys--was on its way north in early 1990 when federal agents seized it, prosecutors said.
Max Regula, the FBI special agent in charge of the investigation, said agents who made an undercover purchase bought 1 kilo for $25,000, meaning the value of 646 kilos of cocaine at the “low end” was about $16 million, Regula said.
The defendants face bail hearings throughout this week in federal court in San Diego, prosecutors said.
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