Drug Ring Bust Nets 56 Arrests

Authorities announced the breakup of an international methamphetamine and money-laundering ring, saying the action should put a significant crimp on the flow of methamphetamine throughout the country.

Dubbed “Operation Living Large,” the two-year, multi-agency sting targeted a scheme that shrouded alleged drug profits through an exotic car dealership in Costa Mesa. In all, 56 people have been arrested, authorities said, including ring leader Carlos Molina, 31, at his Rowland Heights home Wednesday.

Authorities seized as many as 80 luxury cars earlier this week from the Orange County car dealer, including Porsches, Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Investigators acknowledge, however, that some of the cars--estimated at $200,000 to $500,000 each--may belong to legitimate customers, including an XJ220 Jaguar owned by Mike Tyson and a Ford Excursion owned by Dennis Rodman.

“This is a big day for law enforcement,” said Riverside County Sheriff Bob Doyle, who led a news conference Thursday detailing the investigation.

“It’s not every day you get to take down an international drug organization.... This will have a major impact on the distribution of methamphetamine.”

Doyle said investigators got their break in the case about two years ago, after a drug bust in the Riverside County community of Rubidoux.

Information from that case led detectives to the ring, which had major labs set up in Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and Los Angeles counties.

Drug ring members typically smuggled the ingredients to make methamphetamine from Mexico and Canada, where the sale of pseudoephedrine, the main ingredient in methamphetamine, is legal.

Several “super labs,” as detectives called them, were then established in rural areas of Riverside and San Bernardino counties. Labs also were set up in a South Gate industrial park and a residential community in San Bernardino County called Muscoy.

“One of the biggest labs I’ve personally ever seen was set up here in Riverside County,” said Riverside Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Dave Stroh.

Stroh, who acknowledged that Riverside and San Bernardino counties have aptly been dubbed the methamphetamine capital of the state, said most of the drugs were sold locally through street gangs.

Some, however, were driven across the country for sale.

Molina’s ring also produced the drug ecstasy and smuggled it to buyers in the Midwest, said Special Agent Jose Martinez, spokesman for the Los Angeles Drug Enforcement Agency.

“By plane, by train, by boat, they were moving these drugs any way they could think of,” Doyle said.

Investigators used wiretaps and video surveillance to track the drug ring’s operations, said San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty. Marie Fournier.

Profits from the drug sales, which totaled in the millions, were regularly laundered through Auto Market, owned by Nader Amirvand, authorities said. Amirvand allowed Molina and his associates to buy the high-end cars, but kept very little paperwork on the sales. He also allowed the buyers to register the cars to Auto Market, instead of using their real names.

In the case of a drug bust, Stroh said, the cars would then be protected because authorities were supposed to be unable to trace them back to Molina’s men. Investigators, however, were tipped to the plan and arrested Amirvand on Wednesday on suspicion of aiding and abetting the drug ring.

Martinez said it was unclear how long Molina’s group had been in operation before the investigation began two years ago.

Martinez added that the group was considered very dangerous.

“One of the residences we searched had guns at every corner of the house,” Martinez said. “There was a gun by the desk, a gun where they hung their ties, shotguns in the garage, underneath the couches, everywhere.”

In addition to the cars, investigators also seized $400,000 in cash, numerous gold and diamond watches and rings, guns, and 980,000 pseudoephedrine tablets.