DEA INTERRUPTS SHIPMENTS, SEIZES 554 POUNDS OF COCAINE

The Drug Enforcement Administration office in Atlanta is awash in cocaine
after two separate seizures over the weekend netted nearly 554 pounds of
that drug and smaller quantities of other controlled substances.

One find was at Hartsfield International Airport. DEA agents had been
warned to be on the lookout for a private jet on a chartered flight from
Los Angeles to Atlanta. When the jet arrived at 2:06 a.m. Saturday, three
men got off carrying four suitcases, which they put into the trunk of a
waiting limousine.

Armed with a federal search warrant, agents opened the suitcases and found
49 kilos --- 107.8 pounds --- of cocaine, according to a DEA press release.
The three passengers on the jet, Chauncey Ransom, Jesus Muro Calbera and
Fabricio Fonseca Jimenez, were arrested on charges of possession of cocaine
with intent to distribute, according to the press release.

The second case started with Louisiana State Troopers conducting a routine
traffic stop of a tractor-trailer on I-10. Hidden in a false compartment in
the trailer the troopers found 446 pounds of cocaine.

The truck was allowed to continue on, under surveillance, to its delivery
address on Nerine Circle in Dunwoody, where the cocaine was unloaded,
according to a DEA press release. On Saturday, DEA agents raided the house
at that address and seized the cocaine, plus 52 pounds of methamphetamine,
a small quantity of marijuana, two handguns and an assault rifle.

Three men were arrested in the raid. Charged with possession of cocaine and
methamphetamine with intent to distribute were Steve Tijerina, Rafael
Torres Alfaro and Eric Garcia Cuadros, the DEA press release said. No other
information on those arrested was available.