AUTHORITIES ARREST 16 IN DRUG BUST

Alleged Ring Netted $1 Million A Month

Sixteen people accused of putting $1
million a month worth of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana onto
Denver's streets were arrested Friday on charges of being part of a
cross-country drug operation.

Another five people named in the federal indictment are being sought,
U.S. Attorney John Suthers said.

"Any time you can take 21 people and tell (some of) them they're
going to face life in prison, and take a million dollars of drugs off
the streets, it's a tremendous effort," Denver Police Chief Gerry
Whitman said at a news conference Friday.

The indictment returned Feb. 28 accuses Mario Oregon-Cortez, 39,
until recently of Denver, of heading a distribution organization that
shuttled drugs hidden inside Lincoln Town Cars with secret
compartments. The drugs were taken from Mexico to San Diego, where
they were put into the cars and sent to Denver. Some of the drugs
were sold here; the rest were repackaged and sent on to eight states
in the Midwest and on the East Coast, authorities said.

In Denver, the drugs were kept in so-called stash houses and in safe
places, including a trash bin between two central Denver streets.
Packets of cocaine were wrapped in foil, then smeared with grease or
sprinkled with black pepper, in an effort to keep them from being
detected, authorities said.

Oregon-Cortez and his older brother, Ascencion, of Chula Vista,
Calif., were charged under a law known as the drug-kingpin statute.
If convicted, each of the brothers could face between 20 years and
life in prison, and fines of up to $4 million.

The other defendants face up to 10 years in prison and $1 million in
fines each.

Of the 16 people arrested Friday, three lived in Denver, three in
Aurora, and the rest were from South Dakota and California. The five
still being sought include two Denver residents, and people in
Florida, South Dakota and Kentucky.

During Friday's arrests, authorities confiscated two guns, a TEC-9
and a .22-caliber rifle and 3 kilograms of cocaine. Over the course
of the 11/2-year investigation, more than 40 kilograms of cocaine was
seized.

That's barely more than the group put on the streets of Denver each
month, authorities said. Suthers said that 30 kilograms of cocaine,
30 pounds of methamphetamine and 200 pounds of marijuana was
distributed monthly in Denver.

The group also sent drugs as far away as Miami and Atlanta, as well
as several locations around the Midwest, he said. Mario Oregon-Cortez
lived in Denver until November, when he moved to South Dakota,
Suthers said.

In addition to ones in Denver and Aurora, search warrants also were
executed in California, Minnesota and South Dakota on Friday in
connection with the case.

Besides the drugs, weapons and $45,000 in cash, authorities seized
several Lincoln Town Cars on Friday.

"In terms of what we have encountered before, this is a large
organization," Suthers said.

Last year, authorities seized 102 kilograms of cocaine worth $10
million in Denver and Aurora, and arrested three men. They said it
was the largest drug bust here in 13 years.