News - Local - Rockingham
Friday, August 25, 2006
Cocaine seized, 4 arrested in bust


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By Sonja Elmquist
Staff Writer


Sonja Elmquist/News & Record
Sheriff Sam Page (left) displays weapons and cocaine that were seized.WENTWORTH -- Four illegal immigrants were arrested Tuesday in western Rockingham County and charged with trafficking nearly 18 pounds of powder cocaine valued at $800,000. Deputies seized the drugs, automatic weapons and two vehicles.

Sheriff Sam Page said Thursday that he didn't know if the drugs were destined for Rockingham County or if the alleged traffickers were just passing through.

Either way, Page said, it was a danger.

"When you have 171/2 or 18 pounds of cocaine going through your county, it could very well be coming to your county," Page said.

The seized drugs sat in four large, plastic-wrapped bricks on a table in his office with the seized weapons.

Page said investigators had not determined whether the shipment was part of a larger drug smuggling operation.

Noe Alejandro Vera Ramirez, 32, and Paulino Castro Cortez, 27, both of Winston-Salem, were charged with trafficking in cocaine by possession and trafficking in cocaine by transporting.

They were in a black Jeep Cherokee and carrying the entire 8 kilograms of cocaine, as well as a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol, Page said.
Page said.

Arturo Lopez Herrero, 26, of Winston-Salem and Ignacio Olivas Galindo, 36, of Roy, Wash., were driving a blue Chevrolet pickup truck along with Ramirez and Cortez.

Herrero and Galindo were charged with conspiring to traffic in cocaine. A .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol was seized from the pickup truck.

Each was held under a $16 million bond.