ilbegone
10-31-2009, 04:40 AM
Six Hemet men indicted on cocaine trafficking charges
October 30, 2009
By MICHAEL PERRAULT
The Press-Enterprise
Three Hemet men are charged with drug trafficking after federal authorities seized a plane at a Kansas airport and discovered suitcases filled with 125 pounds of cocaine.
In a federal indictment filed Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kan., 30-year-old Eric Wayne McPeters, 40-year-old Dean Bryan Moya and 31-year-old Richard Allen Vickery are each charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
In a separate indictment earlier this month in Kansas, three other men from Hemet, San Jacinto and Moreno Valley were indicted on drug trafficking charges.
This week's charges stem from an investigation conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and a number of Kansas law enforcement agencies, said U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch.
The Department of Homeland Security's Air Marine Operations Center tracked a plane as it flew from northern New Mexico and notified police in the city of Liberal, Kan., that Moya, the pilot of a 1964 Cessna 210D aircraft, was flying even though his certificate had been revoked due to drug use, said Jim Cross, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice's Kansas district.
Court documents allege Moya was piloting the plane and Vickery was on board when it landed Oct. 22 at the airport in Liberal. Police there contacted the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Southwest Kansas Drug Taskforce.
The Sherriff's Office in Beaver County, Okla., brought in a drug-sniffing dog that indicated the presence of narcotics. After obtaining a search warrant, investigators found 50 individually wrapped bricks of cocaine inside two suitcases, authorities said.
If convicted, the defendants face a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a $4 million fine.
The three other men indicted this month were Hemet resident Alfredo Alvarez Mariscal, 45; Robert Benavides Flores, 70, of San Jacinto; and Caesar Bonilla-Monteil, 24, of Moreno Valley.
They are charged with possession with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms -- 11 pounds -- of cocaine, Cross said. The crime is alleged to have occurred between June 1 to Sept. 22 in Johnson and Wabaunsee counties in Kansas.
Mariscal was allegedly driving a Ford 350 truck on Interstate 70 in Wabaunsee County last month when a Kansas Highway Patrol officer stopped the vehicle and discovered more than 28 pounds of cocaine hidden in an air compressor, according to a criminal complaint.
October 30, 2009
By MICHAEL PERRAULT
The Press-Enterprise
Three Hemet men are charged with drug trafficking after federal authorities seized a plane at a Kansas airport and discovered suitcases filled with 125 pounds of cocaine.
In a federal indictment filed Wednesday at U.S. District Court in Wichita, Kan., 30-year-old Eric Wayne McPeters, 40-year-old Dean Bryan Moya and 31-year-old Richard Allen Vickery are each charged with one count of possession with intent to distribute cocaine.
In a separate indictment earlier this month in Kansas, three other men from Hemet, San Jacinto and Moreno Valley were indicted on drug trafficking charges.
This week's charges stem from an investigation conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and a number of Kansas law enforcement agencies, said U.S. Attorney Lanny Welch.
The Department of Homeland Security's Air Marine Operations Center tracked a plane as it flew from northern New Mexico and notified police in the city of Liberal, Kan., that Moya, the pilot of a 1964 Cessna 210D aircraft, was flying even though his certificate had been revoked due to drug use, said Jim Cross, spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice's Kansas district.
Court documents allege Moya was piloting the plane and Vickery was on board when it landed Oct. 22 at the airport in Liberal. Police there contacted the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Southwest Kansas Drug Taskforce.
The Sherriff's Office in Beaver County, Okla., brought in a drug-sniffing dog that indicated the presence of narcotics. After obtaining a search warrant, investigators found 50 individually wrapped bricks of cocaine inside two suitcases, authorities said.
If convicted, the defendants face a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life imprisonment and a $4 million fine.
The three other men indicted this month were Hemet resident Alfredo Alvarez Mariscal, 45; Robert Benavides Flores, 70, of San Jacinto; and Caesar Bonilla-Monteil, 24, of Moreno Valley.
They are charged with possession with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms -- 11 pounds -- of cocaine, Cross said. The crime is alleged to have occurred between June 1 to Sept. 22 in Johnson and Wabaunsee counties in Kansas.
Mariscal was allegedly driving a Ford 350 truck on Interstate 70 in Wabaunsee County last month when a Kansas Highway Patrol officer stopped the vehicle and discovered more than 28 pounds of cocaine hidden in an air compressor, according to a criminal complaint.