10 Arrested in Breakup of Alleged Drug Ring

SAN DIEGO —  An alleged nationwide drug ring, which authorities believe distributed millions of dollars worth of cocaine and marijuana, was broken with the arrest of 10 people in six states, officials said.

Those arrested were named in a federal indictment in San Diego. Their roundup, completed Tuesday, climaxed an 18-month joint investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI, said DEA spokesman Ron D’Ulisse.

“We believe they imported and distributed 10,000 to 12,000 pounds of marijuana and about 100 to 200 kilos (220 to 440 pounds) of cocaine in the past year and a half,” said D’Ulisse, who estimated the street value of that amount of drugs to be $20 million.

The defendants will be charged in a San Diego federal court with conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine and marijuana, D’Ulisse said.

About 1,000 pounds of marijuana worth about $500,000 was seized by federal agents Tuesday in arrests in San Diego County. Another man in Texas had $800,000 cash in his possession when he was arrested, officials said.

Agents in Amarillo, Tex., began Tuesday’s roundup by arresting a man identified as Ralph Butterwegge, 38, who D’Ulisse said was the one who had $800,000 with him.

In the rural northern San Diego County community of Rainbow, about 60 miles north of downtown San Diego, agents confiscated 1,000 pounds of marijuana along with six guns and arrested two people identified as Robert King, 36, and Sarah Garrett, 29.

Meanwhile, in Buffalo, N.Y., agents arrested Robert P. Obenaur, 42, of Ellicottville, N.Y. Also arrested were Alex P. Apodaca, 37, in Phoenix and Jose Miguel Ramirez, 31, a Colombian citizen already jailed on unrelated charges in a federal penitentiary in Chicago.

Martin Chan, 26, was arrested in Englewood, Colo., where he is in a federal detention center on other charges, D’Ulisse said.

Arrested on Nov. 8 were Enrique Alvarez Medina, 38, of San Diego; Jamie Pineda-Gutierrez, 33, a Colombian citizen residing in Memphis, and Edward James Breland, 48, of San Diego.