MAKESHIFT HOSPITAL DISCOVERED

Supplies Appear Stolen From Stanford

Police said Thursday that nine trucks were required to remove medical
equipment from a makeshift hospital discovered in an East Palo Alto
home that allegedly served as a huge drug-making laboratory.

Officers spent Wednesday removing truckloads of medical equipment,
including hospital beds, surgical instruments and boxes of unopened
supplies.

The homeowner at 998 Runnymede St., Benjamin Ruezga, is reportedly a
longtime Stanford Hospital employee and worked in the hospital's
warehouse before his arrest last week.

Police continue to investigate the possibility that Ruezga, who
reportedly held a nursing license in Mexico, set up the underground
hospital to treat injured criminals wary of checking themselves into
emergency rooms, which are required to report suspicious injuries to
police.

Some of the medical equipment police seized Wednesday was engraved
with initials from the Stanford Medical Center and the Lucile Packard
Children's Hospital, with some instruments even engraved with the
names of certain doctors, police said.

Additionally, officers found a $15,000 kit typically used by medical
personnel to reset broken bones, as well as clothing and bedding with
Stanford Medical Center logos. Police estimate that more than $25,000
worth of medical equipment was kept in the home.

Stanford Hospital representative Andrea Smith declined to discuss
Ruezga's employment status.

``The hospital has been cooperating fully with the police, and at this
point, that's the only comment we have,'' she said.

Ruezga and five others arrested in the initial raid appeared in court
Thursday, but a hearing was delayed until Monday on whether to reduce
their bail amounts, which add up to $5.6 million to $5.7 million.

Prosecutors said they plan to ask the judge to keep the bail amounts
high.

"Incredibly large amounts of narcotics, the firearms and this sophistication
show we're dealing with very high-level and dangerous drug offenders,'' San
Mateo County Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

Last Friday, two dozen law enforcement officers raided the house on a
tip from Soledad police and found two pounds of methamphetamine, half
a kilogram of cocaine, 19 firearms, a surveillance system and 25
pounds of pseudoephedrine, a methamphetamine base.

Police arrested Ruezga, 49, and five other men. One of the men taken
into custody, 43-year-old Angel Garcia Lara, is reportedly a major
drug supplier in Northern California whom police have been watching
closely, East Palo Alto police have said.