Photo: Rigoberto Cacho, Juan Morales Lopez and Sandra Zavala
Ventura County – As hard as they undoubtedly work to interdict the flow of drugs throughout their jurisdiction, sometimes the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Gang Unit just gets lucky.
It was in broad daylight in the early afternoon of June 7th when a month-long investigation into the activities of reputed local area gang member 35-year-old Oxnard resident Rigoberto Cacho came to an end with a “traffic stop.”
According to VCSD spokesman Det. Jose Torres, Gang Unit detectives had been driving around with an active search warrant identifying Cacho as a suspect in “the sales of methamphetamine to residents in Ventura County.”
When the cops spotted Cacho behind the wheel of a vehicle traveling along a major Oxnard area thoroughfare, they pulled the car over and discovered Oxnard residents Juan Morales Lopez, 29, and 31-year-old Sandra Zavala along for the ride.
A search of the vehicle and of Cacho’s residence followed soon thereafter, leading the cops to the discovery and seizure of “a quarter-pound of methamphetamine, additional paraphernalia indicative of narcotic sales, and a firearm.”
With that evidence in hand, detectives took all three suspects into custody and gave them a free ride to Ventura County Jail, where Cacho was booked on charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance, possession for sale of a controlled substance, and transportation of methamphetamine for sale, with his bail set at $300,000.
Lopez and Zavala were each arrested on charges of being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of methamphetamine. Lopez’s bail was also set at $300,000, while Zavala was “later released on her own recognizance.”
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
