BUST MAY STEM BOULDER HEROIN

Deputies believe they have arrested the "primary source" of Boulder's
surging heroin supply, possibly dismantling an operation that
contributed to nine overdose deaths there last year.

"It was a nice catch," Sgt. Brian Lindsey of the Boulder County Drug
Task Force said Thursday.

Boulder police pulled over Rigoberto Lerma-Flores, 22, and Blanca
Margarita Barrera, 18, on a traffic violation Wednesday after
undercover detectives following the suspects told police that the
pair's sport utility vehicle was tied to several drug transactions in
downtown Boulder.

During the traffic stop near Boulder High School, the suspects were
arrested and charged with possession with the intent to distribute
cocaine and heroin.

Officers found 68 balloons and four plastic sandwich bags filled with
about 17 grams of black tar heroin and Mexican brown powder heroin as
well as almost 16 grams of cocaine.

The drugs were worth about $3,000. Officers also confiscated a "large
amount" of cash.

Lerma-Flores told deputies that he had been distributing heroin and
cocaine in Colorado for more than a year, Lindsey said.

While deputies said it is impossible to tell whether Lerma-Flores
sold the heroin involved in the city's recent fatal heroin overdoses,
"The majority of heroin coming to Boulder was from him," Lindsey said.

The arrest is the highlight of an investigation into heroin activity
that the task force launched in January in response to the heroin
deaths. Six Boulder County people have died from overdoses of the
drug since October.

Boulder County saw seven heroin-related deaths in 2005, and four each
in 2003 and 2004, according to the Boulder County Coroner's Office.

Officials said they hope the development means that the area's heroin
problems will taper off.

Deputies said Lerma-Flores has admitted that he was the "boss" of
another man arrested this week as part of the heroin investigation.

On Tuesday police arrested Emanuel Pena-Masiel, 23, after an
undercover detective recognized him. He was arrested for driving
without a valid driver's license and for an outstanding warrant from
the city of Boulder.

With his runner in jail, Lerma-Flores came to town from Colorado
Springs the next day to distribute the drugs himself, Lindsey said.