Drug Trafficking Orange County

Despite vociferous objections from Sheriff Brad Gates and his supporters, Orange County supervisors voted Tuesday to sell the 213-acre Rancho del Rio, seized in a 1985 drug raid, rather than turn it into a narcotics enforcement training center. The vote repeated earlier board actions to sell the land, and it did not come as a surprise. The county staff had recommended selling the property--valued at $1.4 million. Board Chairman Don R.

My escort, Jose Luis, barreled down Paseo Alvaro Obregon along the La Paz waterfront in his yellow Volkswagen dune buggy. The shocks were long since spent and every rut and chuckhole of that Baja California road sent vibrations of earthquake quality through the vehicle. All the way to the prison, Jose Luis dabbed his thinning pate with cactus juice, a home remedy for baldness.

A Marine sergeant and his wife were indicted Wednesday in San Diego County on federal charges of running a steroid distribution center out of their home at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station. In a four-count grand jury indictment, Gunnery Sgt. Matthew J. Sigloch, 37, and his wife, Rene M. Sigloch, were accused of conspiring to distribute and sell anabolic steroids with an estimated street value of as much as $400,000.

Police seized a kilogram of cocaine, and arrested the manager and an employee of the Bijou Adult Video store and three other men on suspicion of selling cocaine, a Garden Grove police spokesman said Tuesday. All five were arrested as a result of a two-month police investigation that allegedly involved several cocaine sales made by the store's manager, Raymundo Gonzalez, 24, of Garden Grove, and employee David O' Harrold, 21, of Garden Grove, Sgt. Douglas Morrill said.

Gold stars with the names of such celebrities as Michael Jackson and Madonna adorn the doors of the 11 private rooms at Elvis!? Karaoke Studios. Small, mirrored rooms lined with cozy wall sofas are rented by the hour so patrons can belt out their favorite tunes--in privacy or in the company of friends and family. Inside the "Michael Jackson" room, Michelle Liu and Kevin Pan, both 22, take turns with the microphone. Liu sings along in Chinese; Pan chooses Korean.

While working on an unrelated investigation, undercover narcotics officers stumbled upon a drug-trafficking operation, seizing 220 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $40 million and arresting two men on drug charges, police said Saturday. William A. Garcia, 24, of Anaheim and Jesus W. Calderon, 23, of Westminster were arrested Friday while driving south on the Santa Ana Freeway near Harbor Boulevard, Police Lt. John Cross said Saturday.

Daniel James Fowlie, the alleged patriarch of a vast drug smuggling operation at a remote ranch in southeastern Orange County, was extradited to the United States from Mexico on Monday, ending a 20-year effort by law enforcement authorities to apprehend him. Fowlie, wanted on at least 26 drug-related charges filed in federal court, was turned over to U.S. authorities at a Baja California prison in the afternoon and flown to John Wayne Airport aboard a U.S. Customs Service plane.

The 17-year-old said he joined a gang with the best of intentions. Gangs from surrounding areas were invading his neighborhood in Ventura County, beating up friends and selling drugs. The youth said he and his friends became more like a vigilante force than a gang, trying to keep gangs out of the neighborhood and retaliating for their violence. But the group was soon indistinguishable from any other gang.

A Cypress man who masterminded one of the world's largest marijuana-trafficking operations was sentenced to more than 24 years in prison Friday for smuggling more than 34 tons of the drug into the country from Thailand. William E. Uhler, 40, was sentenced to 24 years and four months in prison by U.S. District Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in Los Angeles. He was convicted last December of federal charges stemming from the importation of $100 million worth of marijuana between 1985 and 1988.

Josue T. Prada, a former Orange County lawyer who defended accused cocaine smugglers until he was indicted in San Francisco on drug-conspiracy charges, may have jumped bail and fled, officials said Monday. Prada, 40, the accused kingpin of the California arm of Colombia's powerful Medellin cocaine cartel, has failed to report several times to U.S.