MARTIN SHERIFF: DRUGS FOUND IN GOLDEN GATE CAME STRAIGHT FROM MEXICO

STUART -- Martin County sheriff's investigators seized about $20,000 in
cash, a 9 mm handgun and more than a half-pound of cocaine during raids on
two homes in Golden Gate, authorities announced Friday.

The special investigations division obtained search warrants Thursday for
homes in the 3100 block of Garden Street and the 2800 block of Amherst
Street, after a month of work to prove three men and two women there were
bringing cocaine to Martin County directly from Mexico.

Deputies frequently target well-known drug hotspots in Golden Gate. But
Sheriff Robert Crowder said this case is different because the drugs came
straight from Mexico instead of being bought from middlemen in West Palm
Beach or Miami.

That had the effect of bringing in much more money and product for the
dealers, who all also worked in the area as roofers or on construction
crews, he said.

Tips from confidential informants to community policing deputies led to the
arrests.

"It's an example of the outstanding work our unit is doing," Crowder said
Friday. "We're making some headway."

Lt. John Wardle, who heads the special investigations unit, said the
alleged dealers face seven to 15 years in prison if convicted, and they
would be deported after serving their time. He said the bust put a major
dent in the area's drug trade.

"We got them in time before it got handed out to the smaller dealers," he said.

The alleged ringleader, identified by authorities as Armando James Villa,
admitted to "bringing it over himself," Wardle said, but he refused to say
how he got across the border undetected.

Also arrested were Ezequiel Palacios-Jaimes, Margarita Pementel-Ortega,
Fulgencio Ortega and Ana Karen Torres, sheriff's records showed.

Investigators think the crew used fake identification and had been in
operation for at least a year, bringing in about $20,000 a month.