Police say bust will slow Costa Mesa drug traffic

Marisa O’Neil

SANTA ANA-- Costa Mesa Police detectives seized a large amount of

drugs and loaded guns from a home Thursday afternoon, some from the

bedroom of one suspect’s daughter, police said.

Costa Mesa narcotics detectives conducted a 15-month investigation

that culminated in the arrest of Santa Ana residents Jesus Nunez, 40,

and Pablo Hernandez, 44, cutting off a major supplier to local

dealers, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Mike Ginther said. Along with the

arrests, police seized 13 pounds of methamphetamine, one pound of

cocaine, 94 pounds of marijuana and $22,211.

Police also took an fully-automatic AK-47 assault rifle, a loaded

44-Magnum handgun and a loaded shotgun from one of Hernandez’s cars,

Ginther said. They found two additional handguns in a bedroom of

Hernandez’s house, he said.

“He had the 13 pounds of [methamphetamines] and two loaded

handguns in his 4-year-old daughter’s bedroom,” Ginther said.

Both men face six felony drug charges and one felony weapons

charge and are being held in lieu of bail. They are scheduled to

appear in court Monday.

Costa Mesa Police worked with the High-Intensity Drug Traffic

Assn., a federal joint task force including local law enforcement

agencies, Costa Mesa Police Sgt. Marty Carver said.

The arrests took place in two Sana Ana homes, one in the 400 block

of E. St. Andrew Place and one in the 1300 block of Spruce Street,

Ginther said. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency in Yuma, Ariz.,

also obtained indictments against Nunez and Hernandez in connection

with another arrest there, Ginther said.

“They were major drug traffickers, bringing [the drugs] in and

shipping them to smaller people,” Carver said. “These things usually

involve so many agencies, crossing so many state lines, time lines

and even international lines.”

During the investigation, which started in September of 2003,

narcotics officers made drug purchases from Hernandez, Ginther said.

Hernandez and Nunez appeared to be supplying the drugs to

mid-level dealers in Costa Mesa and other cities, he said. Over the

past few months, Costa Mesa Police officers made arrests of some

local dealers who made purchases from the two men to bring drugs into

the city, Ginther said.

“This disrupts some of the drug trafficking problems in Costa

Mesa,” he said. “We’ve taken somebody higher up the ladder, and that

disrupts the flow to the people below .”