3 arrested in major marijuana bust
Friday, January 28, 2011 02:52 AM
By Stephanie Czekalinski

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Tessa Bargainnier | DISPATCH
Columbus police seized $946,000 in cash and 2,500 pounds of marijuana.

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Hector Ernesto Martinez

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Arnaldo Ruben Miranda

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Luis Alberto Miranda


Law-enforcement authorities stacked bricks of marijuana wrapped in duct tape waist-high onto four pallets yesterday in the Columbus (OH) police property room.

Next to the bricks were cardboard boxes of bills: Washington to Franklin.

The haul, they said, came Wednesday, when police arrested three men and confiscated nearly $1 million in cash. Taken along with the money was 2,500 pounds of marijuana - more than the weight of a Toyota Yaris.

The seizures and arrests were the result of a six-month investigation by a task force of Columbus police, Franklin County deputies and other law-enforcement officers.

Brothers Arnaldo Ruben Miranda, 25, and Luis Alberto Miranda, 24, along with Hector Ernesto Martinez, 36, were in the Franklin County jail last night on felony drug-possession charges. Bail was set at $500,085 for each.

Columbus police Cmdr. Gary Cameron of the narcotics bureau gave this account of how the arrests occurred:

On Wednesday, police were watching a South Side warehouse at 2365 S. 7th St. as part of the investigation when they saw a large shipment of what they believed - and later confirmed - to be marijuana arrive and be unloaded around 11 a.m.

Cameron didn't say how the shipment arrived.

Shortly after the delivery, officers stopped a white van they saw leaving the warehouse at the corner of S. High Street and Kingston Avenue, he said.

Inside the van was more than 1,000 pounds of marijuana. Martinez and Luis Miranda, who were in the van, were arrested.

After stopping the van, investigators headed to a Far East Side home that had been under surveillance. Arnaldo Miranda was arrested after leaving the home on Carbondale Drive with duffel bags and suitcases containing cash.

Officials found more drugs and money when they searched the house and the warehouse, they said.

"By 2 o'clock, everything was said and done, and we were just taking stock of what we had," Cameron said.

The marijuana has a street value of more than $3 million, officials said. Investigators think it came from the border with Mexico and was to be distributed throughout central Ohio.

Additional charges against others aren't expected.

Court records list Arnaldo Miranda's address as 6243 Norway Glen Ave. on the Northeast Side. Luis Miranda is from Phoenix.

Martinez, of 674 Wellington Blvd. on the North Side, will be turned over to immigration authorities once his criminal case is resolved, though authorities wouldn't say whether he's an illegal immigrant. Arnaldo Miranda also is wanted on a warrant out of Arizona, according to Franklin County jail records.

sczekalinski@dispatch.com

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