https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2024/05/31/grand-jury-indicts-14-people-in-cocaine-trafficking-operation-from-tijuana-to-east-coast/

A federal grand jury has charged 14 people with participating in a multi-million-dollar cocaine trafficking and money laundering scheme.

According to an indictment unsealed Thursday, plus additional information in a related search warrant, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release, the leader of the organization, Jesus Ruiz-Sandoval, allegedly managed the smuggling and distribution of large quantities of cocaine from Tijuana into the U.S. Movement of cash proceeds back to Mexico allegedly followed.

Ruiz, 45, is a U.S. citizen who prosecutors said fled the U.S. for Mexico several years ago, in violation of his terms of supervised release for a prior federal drug offense.

Other co-conspirators named in the search warrant were John Joe Soto, 42, and Esteban Sinhue Mercado, 24, also U.S. citizens currently residing in Mexico.

Prosecutors allege that the smugglers transported multi-kilo quantities of cocaine from Tijuana through San Diego to Los Angeles. From there, commercial trucks transported the cocaine from to Mid-Atlantic states for distribution.

Trucks also allegedly transported cash proceeds from cocaine sales back to Los Angeles, where it was packaged and loaded into cars that couriers drove through San Diego and into Tijuana, for delivery to Ruiz.

To date, investigators have seized more than $5 million in cash proceeds and more than 130 kilos of cocaine related to the case.

Other suspects named in the court papers hail from Anaheim, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Pasadena and Van Nuys.

The investigation is one of two into Ruiz. A separate grand jury in the Central District of California indicted him and other co-conspirators in January in connection with a separate, but similar, trafficking scheme.