DRUG-TRAFFICKING CASE GOES TO JURY

Former Narcotics Officer Charged In Connection To Discovery Of 24 Pounds Of
Marijuana In Brother-In-Law's Possession.

RANCHO CUCAMONGA -- Jurors will begin deliberating today in the trial
of a former Bell Gardens narcotics officer charged with conspiring to
traffic marijuana.

Carlos Iribe, 31, of Placentia was fired from the Police Department
and faces up to six years and eight months in state prison if convicted.

Iribe was arrested after a drug-sniffing dog with the Ontario Airport
Police alerted officers to a package addressed to Iribe's
brother-in-law in June 1999, San Bernardino County Deputy Dist. Atty.
Marie Fournier said. The package contained $13,000 in cash that
smelled of marijuana, she said.

Narcotics officers with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department
staked out the address on the package, on La Grande Street in Rancho
Cucamonga.

They spotted Joseph Belmal, Iribe's brother-in-law, leaving the home
and pulled him over after he tried to get away at 60 mph, Fournier
said.

The officers found 24 pounds of marijuana in the car, along with
Iribe's 8-year-old stepdaughter. The car was registered to Iribe's
wife, Yvonne Amezcua, and had been refinanced in Iribe's name.

Iribe was called to come and pick up his stepdaughter, and the
officers expected him to be upset that the child was riding in a car
full of drugs, Fournier said.

But instead, Fournier said, Iribe told his brother-in-law, "Keep your
mouth shut and I'll get you out."

"Red flags are going off in the officers' minds," Fournier said. The
officers suspected Iribe might be involved. They got a search warrant
for his home in Placentia.

When they got there, they found a pleasant, well-kept middle-class
home.

But inside a secret compartment behind a closet, officers found safes
with handguns. The guns were covered in a fine layer of marijuana, and
a police dog handler testified that the dog reacted on the spot,
signifying that a large amount of marijuana had been recently moved.

Fournier said it seemed as though Iribe hurriedly got rid of the drugs
in his home when he found out his brother-in-law had been pulled over.

Amezcua, Iribe's wife, has already pleaded guilty in the case, as has
Joseph Belmal and his wife, Amanda.

Defense attorney Larry Forbes argued that Iribe was unaware that his
wife, her sister and her sister's husband were involved in drug dealing.

"It's tragic," Forbes said. "He married the wrong person."

Forbes said Iribe was laid up for a month before the arrest with a
broken ankle and could not go upstairs. But Fournier said Iribe
injured himself chasing a suspect.

As proof, Forbes said Iribe twice called the police to his home before
the arrest to keep the peace when he and his wife were fighting.

"Would a cop having trouble with his wife call the police to come to
his house if he knew there were drugs upstairs." he said.

Fournier said the argument didn't hold up.

"You think you wouldn't know if in your bedroom there's a secret
closet. And you wouldn't know if there's marijuana in there."