Thursday, November 3, 2005
Cops: 'H' ring busted
13 arrested; one critically wounded during raids
GREG MARSHALL and DAVID L. TEIBEL
Tucson Citizen
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Thirteen members of Tucson's largest heroin ring were arrested yesterday and one suspect was critically wounded by police gunfire during raids, police said.
Police have warrants and are searching for five suspects.
The raids took place at homes across the metro area and capped a nine-month investigation by state, federal and local law enforcement agencies into the Magaña drug trafficking organization, officials said.
The organization, authorities said, was responsible for selling heroin to students at Catalina Foothills High School and Edge Charter School in October.
Students at the schools were arrested this fall in the case, said David Neri, the Tucson police captain in charge of the multiagency Counter Narcotics Alliance, which is doing the investigation.
Sgt. Ramon Batista, a Tucson police spokesman, said authorities have arrested 53 members of the heroin operation, which police say has been distributing the drug since 1998.
Neri said 35 suspects were arrested earlier in the case and he said authorities expect to make more arrests.
During the execution of a search warrant at a home in the 4600 block of East Montecito Street, officers were confronted by an armed man after they entered the home, Batista said. Before entering, he said, SWAT team members shouted to the occupants in both Spanish and English. Officer Roger Wall, who has been with the department for 10 years, fired twice at Rafael Acosta Perez, 33, hitting him once in the hand and once in the abdomen, Batista said.
Perez did not fire, he said. Perez was treated on the scene by SWAT medics and then taken to a local hospital where he was in critical but stable condition last night. Batista said SWAT medics were on hand because it was a "high-risk arrest." Perez is considered one of the two top members of the organization. Police say the other top member, Oscar Lopez Magaña, 38, was arrested in September on a failure to appear warrant. He was charged yesterday in this case as well.
Batista said Wall was put on paid administrative leave, which is standard procedure in officer-involved shootings.
Police arrested Perez's live-in girlfriend, Ofelia Rodriguez Lopez, 24. They had a warrant for her arrest as well and said she is part of the organization. Lopez's two children, ages 1 and 2, who were in the residence, were placed with Child Protective Services. Batista said he did not know the children's relationship to Perez.
Neighbor Sandra Garcia, 28, said she heard "three or four" gunshots at 7 a.m. She said she was taken aback by the events that had transpired down the street.
"It's a family neighborhood," she said. "In 13 years of living here, nothing like this has ever happened before."
"I've lived here two months, so far it's been very peaceful," said Jose Escarcega, 38, who lives a few doors from the shooting scene.
Law enforcement officers and drug rehabilitation authorities said at a press conference yesterday that Tucson is a major shipment point for heroin to other U.S. cities.
"We're being hit by more and more heroin in this area, and more ends up staying (in Tucson)," said Anthony Coulson, assistant special agent in charge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration's Tucson office.
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