Drug Seizures

A Canadian immigrant living in Newport Beach was charged in federal court Monday in one of the largest Ecstasy-smuggling busts in the region, authorities said. Alexandru Sabau, 37, was taken into custody Friday by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after being intercepted near his apartment in the 9000 block of Residencia. Sabau was arrested as he arrived to meet with an informant to finalize a drug trade, authorities said.

Three tons of marijuana worth an estimated $20 million on the street was found in a rental truck abandoned on a freeway onramp this week, authorities said Friday. A California Highway Patrol officer discovered the stash when he stopped to check on a truck parked on the Milliken Avenue onramp to the westbound San Bernardino Freeway in Ontario about 9 p.m. Wednesday, said CHP spokesman Sgt. Telfinues Preszler Jr. No one was around, and nothing appeared to be wrong with the vehicle, he said.

Twenty tons of cocaine seized off the Pacific coast of Panama over the weekend were believed headed to a Mexican port for delivery to the notorious Sinaloa cartel, U.S. officials said Tuesday. The seizure Sunday of drugs valued at more than $275 million wholesale was described by the officials as the largest recorded maritime cocaine bust. The drugs were believed to have been purchased by Ismael Zambada, a suspected leader of Mexico's so-called Sinaloa cartel, officials said.

Glendale police confiscated $10 million worth of marijuana from a sophisticated outdoor growing operation in the Verdugo Mountains that tapped into a city water tank designated for emergency use during brush fires. The growers watered their crops by illegally hooking a drip-irrigation system into a 10,000-gallon cistern in themountains, which are prone to summer and fall brush fires. Glendale fire officials said half of the water tank had been drained.

Two Orange County men have taken the cops to court to get their pot back. Jim Spray, 51, and Felix Cha, 22, who have doctors' recommendations to use marijuana for medical reasons, said that since charges against them were dropped, their property should be returned. The two men argued their cases Thursday before the state's 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana, which has 90 days to issue a decision.

Seven rookie Border Patrol agents seized nearly a ton of marijuana from three vehicles abandoned near the U.S.-Mexico border. The agents, who graduated this month from the Border Patrol academy, spotted two sport-utility vehicles and a pickup early Wednesday heading north from the border near the Tecate crossing, about 40 miles east of San Diego. Other Border Patrol agents in the area were called to join in pursuit of the caravan, which turned back toward Mexico, an agency spokesman said.

A Boyle Heights day-care facility also housed a large cache of drugs, weapons and money, Los Angeles police said Wednesday. LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon said officers raided the duplex in the 800 block of Esperanza Street about 11 p.m. Tuesday and found 14 kilos of cocaine, 50 pounds of marijuana, a stash of firearms and $300,000 cash. "We found more in the house than we expected. Once inside we found the city permit for a day-care facility posted on the wall," said Vernon.

SAN DIEGO -- Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels and U.S. authorities' seizures at sea have helped to sharply reduce the availability of cocaine in 37 American cities, according to a report released Tuesday by federal anti-narcotics officials. The shortage has driven up prices to their highest levels in nearly two decades, with the cost of cocaine increasing 24%, from $95.89 to $118.70 per gram over the six-month period ending in June, according to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Country singer-songwriter Willie Nelson and several fellow musicians were charged with misdemeanor drug possession by state police after a search of their tour bus turned up marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms. State police spokesman Willie Williams said the bus was pulled over about seven miles east of Lafayette for a routine commercial inspection, and a state trooper smelled marijuana inside the bus.

Authorities seized a record number of marijuana plants this harvest season, uprooting nearly 1.7 million plants valued at more than $6.7 billion, the state Department of Justice said Monday. Local, state and federal agencies in the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting program conducted 477 raids in 34 counties from late July to early October, making 27 arrests and seizing 29 weapons, officials said.