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. The three suspects were identified as 25-year-old Martin Eduardo BustosTorres, 23 . FBI Chicago October 04, 2011. 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. 4:00 PM 01/29/2013 - A 23-year-old math teacher at Overland High School in Aurora, Colorado is in a heap of trouble after a local television station publicized the bawdy but awesome contents of her Twitter account. Federal and local law enforcement are executing warrants related to a drugdistributionbust in the Denver metro area Thursday morning. The officers were conducting surveillance on the suspect and knew he had a felony warrant out for his arrest. Authorities allowed the driver who was caught ferrying a record haul of pure fentanyl powder. In Pittsburgh, she helped the newspaper earn the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news after a mass shooting at a local synagogue, and in 2020 she was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in local reporting for an investigation into child sexual abuse among Amish and Mennonite communities. Police shared the following details about the large amount of drugs that were captured: - 179 pounds methamphetamines - 43 pounds. An Aurora woman led an extensive international drug trafficking organization that distributed high volumes of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl throughout Colorado, U.S. Attorney Jason Dunn said at a news conference Wednesday. In February of 2016, the DEA Strike Force Group began investigating illegal drug trafficking activities of Jose Tapia-Rubio who lived in the 1200 block of E. Arizona Avenue in Aurora, according to the civil forfeiture documents. Rocky Mountain DEA Special Agent in Charge Brian Besser and 18th Judicial Attorney John Kellner said they called the press conference to let people know they are not "asleep at the wheel" when it comes to drug enforcement. 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. for top stories from 9NEWS curated daily just for you. This is a portion of the money they seized. On January 23, 2019, a federal Superseding Indictment was filed against Dana Faulkner, also known as "Diablo" (age 40), of Aurora, CO, charging him with Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances (methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine) in the Rapid City and Northern Black Hills area, Use of Firearm in Furtherance of Drug Trafficking Crime, 2019 Sentinel Colorado. The identity of the cars driver is being kept secret to protect his family from retribution from drug cartels. 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. (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. (KKTV) - A massive investigation resulted in 800 arrests, the seizures of more than eight tons of cocaine; 22 tons of marijuana; and 2 tons . 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The fentanyl pills recovered by authorities were packaged and disguised to look like prescription drugs a tactic used to make the drugs more appealing to users, Dunn said. Perry Bertsch. In 2015, it killed 64 people in the state. - 7 pounds heroin and 7 pounds crack Law enforcement officials reported last month that more than 2 million dosage units of fentanyl were removed from Colorado communities so far this year. Example video title will go here for this video. 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). 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 Boss" performed in Colorado as part of his Springsteen E Street Band 2023 Tour and also surprised a Denver store owner a few hours before the show. Notifications can be turned off anytime in the browser settings. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Tipsters can remain anonymous. Dean Narciso The Columbus Dispatch 0:00 1:38 The Franklin County Prosecutor's Office announced late Friday afternoon the indictments of 79 people and the seizure of nearly $6 million in drugs in. The drug market morphs by the hour. - 43 pounds cocaine Polis said the plan will build on previous efforts to bring down costs and increase transparency. Published: Jun. 2023 Colorado Public Radio. The Aurora residence was on the 12100 block of Amherst Circle. Officials says 30 people were indicted. She joined the paper in 2019 and previously worked as a crime reporter at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in Pennsylvania and the Chattanooga Times Free Press in Tennessee. Listen now. Private and rental vehicles and commercial trucks fre-quently are used to transport drugs into and through Colorado. Investigators say the group was dealing over two pounds (one kilogram) of heroin every week in Denver. On the early morning of Thursday, Mar. Law enforcement hasnt yet arrested the original dealer, believed to be in Mexico, who coordinated with the group. ", RELATED: Denver Health Officials Warn About Increase In Deadly Overdoses Linked To Fentanyl. 21, 2022 at 1:05 PM PDT. The indictment claims that a person named Julian Green was the "leader and supervisor" of the operation. 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. Read More. NBA investigating social media post by Ja Morant following game in Denver, State Democrats introduce assault weapons ban, How a debate over support for the ERA turned into anti-trans rhetoric at the Colorado state Capitol, Colorados Mount Evans could soon be Mount Blue Sky. Even fruit-flavored incarnations of the pill are being found, some being etched with the BMW or Mercedes logos, they said. 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. Treatment data indicate that cocaine, particularly crack, commonly is abused in Denver. But it is also very cheap to produce either in China or Mexico. The homes where the drugs were found were in Denver and Aurora. Law enforcement officers made a number of arrests recently in connection to drug trafficking in Rifle and the greater Garfield County area. As the spring homebuying season approaches, affordability is at its lowest point in history, one economist said. The record haul from last months bust was packed into 48 one-kilo blocks. An 18thJudicial District grand jury indicted eight people, some of whom were related, on charges of smuggling and distributing meth, heroin and fentanyl pills, all of which originated in Mexico. A 24-year-old is under arrest and being held on a drug charge after an extensive police operation in which some officers donned hazmat suits before entering a southeast Denver apartment. Its hard to keep the calculations updated in real time as the pills come in, he added. Both Besser and District Attorney John Kellner stressed the fact that fentanyl pills are not only blue in color, but pink and white. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. 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. illicit drug in the past year. 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Drug bust in the Denver metro on Thursday. Angelina Maestas posted court documents on Facebook that openly accused another member of the trafficking operation with cooperating with police. / CBS Colorado. 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. We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. Kellner acknowledged that stopping this operation will only put a temporary pause on business. It has arrested 65 high-level defendants and confiscated 500,000 fake fentanyl pills, 360 pounds of meth, 104 pounds of cocaine and taken nearly 200 guns off the street that were tied to drug operations. The Oscars will air on ABC and can be streamed on ABC.com and the ABC app as well as Hulu + Live TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV or FuboTV. The Aurora woman, Candelaria Vallejo-Gallo, who is either 41 or 42, was charged with running the primary operation. The availability and accessibility of fake pills (laced with fentanyl) right now is absolutely staggering. In an unrelated traffic stop of a vehicle headed toward Tulsa, Oklahoma, on I-70 in February, 30,000 fentanyl pills were collected. 9Wants to Know saw members of the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Aurora Police Department at two locations in Aurora, one was a home, the other a business, in the Mississippi and I-225 area. 16) Arthur Moore, 68 years of age, of 712 James Drive in . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Powdered cocaine is abused throughout the greater metropolitan area, and crack cocaine is abused primarily in northeastern Denver and in Aurora, just outside Denver. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. In Mexican cities, the pills can be made for roughly 4 cents each. 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. Several of the suspects appeared in federal custody hearings Feb. 19. 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. Colorado had more drug seizures, per pound, from 2017 through 2021 than any other state in the country the second state was California. 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. 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. Now: 1 location off miss & Peoria in aurora. The illicit drug has been seen on state highways more than ever before. PHOTO BY QUINCY SNOWDON/Sentinel Colorado. March 11, 2022 / 7:35 PM Four locations were searched in Aurora on Thursday as part of this drug bust, sources say. 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 study, the largest of its kind, compared former players against men of the same age and found that players who had concussions during their NFL careers scored worse on assessments of episodic memory, attention, processing speed and vocabulary.