Drug-ring arrests include Hawai'i
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — An accused international drug dealer and 30 other people in California and Hawai'i have been arrested in a federal investigation dubbed "Operation Doctor Wu."
The man whom officials identified as the ringleader, "Doctor Wu," was named in an indictment unsealed Friday as Baron Michael Angelo Suarez-Rothschild. He was being held in Singapore and authorities were seeking to extradite him to the United States, according to Misha Piastro, a special agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"He's a fairly elusive international drug trafficker that we've suspected of drug trafficking since the early 1980s," Piastro said.
Investigators believe that Suarez-Rothschild, who also goes by Michael Grabarak, is about 53 years old, Piastro said. He carried a U.S. passport, but his true nationality and identity were unclear. Prosecutors said the name "Doctor Wu" comes from a song by the band Steely Dan.
Suarez-Rothschild was being held for trying to send more than 2 pounds of cocaine through the mail from San Diego to Singapore, Piastro said.
His pending extradition to the United States "is probably a relief to him," Piastro said, because Singapore imposes the death penalty for anyone caught with as little as 2 ounces of drugs.
For two years, investigators tracked a ring that distributed cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana locally in Southern California and shipped drugs to Hawai'i and Singapore. Piastro said the methamphetamine was made in Mexico, the cocaine originated in South America and the marijuana came from British Columbia.
In Hawai'i, the indicted suspects are Rayma Faalealea and Sefo Faalealea of Honolulu; Robert Linder of Pahoa on the Big Island; Brent Weber of Maui; Todd Takata of Kahuku; and Kimberly Deveraux and Douglas Secor of Hale'iwa.
Suarez-Rothschild's organization had ties not only to Hawai'i and Singapore, but also to Australia and other countries in the Far East, Piastro said.
"This organization was moving millions of dollars worth of drugs on a yearly basis," he said. "In one day alone, on April 1st, we seized approximately half a million dollars. That's in one day."
In searches carried out Thursday, federal and local law enforcement agencies arrested 22 people in San Diego County, U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said. Raids on O'ahu led to the arrests in the Islands. Searches also were conducted in Riverside County.
Lam said 24 of the suspects have been indicted on charges of conspiracy to import and distribute the drugs, as well as money laundering.
Authorities seized more than 13 pounds of cocaine, 2 pounds of methamphetamine, and about 30 pounds of high-grade marijuana. They found about $747,000 in suspected drug proceeds and 20 weapons, including nine assault rifles. The operation involved overlapping drug-distribution cells in San Diego, Ventura, and Riverside counties, as well as Hawai'i and Canada, Lam said.
