2-Year Probe Cracks Meth Ring; 11 Face Laundry List of Charges

A two-year investigation into a methamphetamine ring in North County ended with the arrests of 11 suspects who were arraigned Thursday in federal court on charges of narcotics and weapons violations, authorities said.

Two people were also arraigned on charges that they laundered money from the operation.

“It was a very comprehensive investigation,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Laura Birkmeyer said. “We looked into the investment of proceeds into real estate. . . . In excess of 70 weapons were seized.”

The arraignment came a day after U.S. Atty. William Braniff announced plans to give priority to violent criminals who use guns.

William Lee Prue, 39, of Escondido, allegedly ran a sophisticated operation in North County that manufactured and sold methamphetamine since 1987, according to a federal grand jury indictment. He was charged with possessing and intending to distribute 150 pounds of methamphetamine, as well as with a variety of weapons violations.

Prue allegedly sold the drug to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent in 1990, as well as to other defendants named in the indictment who intended to resell it in Arizona and Nevada, the indictment said.

Other people named in the indictment were alleged to be suppliers and people who stored and helped package the drug in their homes in Escondido and San Marcos.

Weapons were seized at the residences and included two fully automatic assault rifles and a variety of revolvers, as well as 5,000 rounds of ammunition, Charles Steimle, spokesman for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said.

Prue was being held in the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, but bail information was not available. Also booked into the jail were: Margaret Prue, 38, Prue’s ex-wife; Jerry Saenz, 28; Robert Gomora, 45; Kristi Bruner, 30; Tifani Bryan, 22, and Kenneth Kinch, 53, all of Escondido; and Tammy Bray, 22, of San Diego.

Also indicted were Jerry Hernandez, 31, of Escondido; Tommy Lancaster, 45, of San Diego; and Cornelius Valdez, age and residence unknown. Valdez was listed as a fugitive.

All in the group were charged with agreeing to manufacture, possess and distribute large quantities of methamphetamines. Saenz and Gomora are also charged with firearms violations.

“This is a very significant drug-trafficking organization that has been immobilized,” DEA spokesman Julius Beretta said. “It should put a dent in the methamphetamine market, at least temporarily.”

In a related complaint, Kinch, a business owner who was also named in the indictment, and real estate agent Barbara Hunt were charged with conspiracy to invest money from William Prue’s operation and misrepresent the source of the money to the Internal Revenue Service. Hunt was being held at the federal jail downtown.