Nine Southern California residents — including three from Riverside County — have been charged in federal indictments targeting an alleged drug pipeline in which suspected members of an organized crime ring imported hundreds of pounds of cocaine and other narcotics from Mexico through Los Angeles for export to Canada or distribution throughout the United States, officials announced Tuesday.
Two federal grand jury indictments unsealed Tuesday in Los Angeles collectively charge 19 defendants for alleged roles in the organization, including suspected importers, distributors, truck drivers and large-scale buyers.
“Today is an example of society pushing back,” said Donald Alway, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.
Authorities said the ring used Canadian handlers and dispatchers who traveled from Canada to Los Angeles to coordinate the pickup and delivery of large shipments of cocaine and methamphetamine. The drugs were loaded onto long- haul semi-trucks and driven from the United States to Canada via the Detroit Windsor Tunnel, the Buffalo Peace Bridge, and the Blue Water Bridge, investigators said.