7 men arrested in Prices Corner heroin raid
By TERRI SANGINITI, The News Journal

Updated Wednesday, January 9, 2008 at 12:07 pm


Seven illegal immigrants were arrested and face deportation following a drug raid Tuesday by New Castle County police and federal immigration officials at a Prices Corner apartment that yielded $30,000 in pure heroin, which had been shipped into the country in owl-shaped figures.

Arrested were Martin Flores Cardenes, 30, charged with possession of cocaine; Martin Romero Flores, 18, charged with trafficking more than 50 grams of heroin; Luis Angel Romero Flores, 24, charged on federal gun charges; and Jose Flores Perez, 39, Jose Felipe Carbajal Magana, 31, Victor Manuel Rios Herrara, 24, and Antonio Carbajal Magana, 23, who are all being held on a federal detainer for being in the country illegally.

At least one of the suspects has been identified as a member of a criminal street gang, county police spokesman Cpl. Trinidad Navarro said.

The county’s SWAT team and drug unit officers, along with agents from the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, concluded an investigation into the distribution of heroin to drug dealers in New Castle County on Tuesday afternoon with a raid at an apartment in the Red Clay Creek Apartments, at Grafton Drive and Greenbank Road.

When officers and agents executed a search warrant at the targeted apartment, they seized 95 grams of pure heroin, a small amount of cocaine and a .380 semi-automatic handgun.

The six occupants in the apartment, who were all in this country illegally, were arrested.

ICE agents discovered through an investigation that the heroin was being shipped through a southern city from an undisclosed location overseas and earmarked for distribution on the streets locally from Mexico.

"Drug smuggling to the United States, no matter the quantity, is an investigative priority of ICE,â€