12 charged in alleged drug ring

Beginning in 2005, operatives led by Juan Manuel Mendiola, 27, shipped drugs from Van Nuys, Calif., to at least nine addresses in Anchorage using United Parcel Service and FedEx, the U.S. attorney's office said Tuesday.

During the sweeping investigation that yielded the breakup of the ring, federal, city and state officials seized 6 kilograms of cocaine, 500 grams of heroin, 1 kilogram of methamphetamine, more than a dozen firearms and more than $100,000 in cash, according to a federal indictment charging Mendiola and 11 others with drug conspiracy.

"As a result of all this, basically what has occurred is a drug-trafficking organization has been dismantled. That is pretty big," said Anchorage police Lt. Nancy Reeder, head of the Metro Drug Enforcement Unit, which was involved in the investigation. "You've got machine guns, cash and a lot of dope that was taken off the streets, and that in and of itself obviously makes the streets a little bit safer."

Mendiola and co-defendant Phonesavanh Vongthongdy, 22, are accused of possessing a small arsenal of weapons, including two Ingram MAC-10 submachine guns, various handguns and semiautomatic rifles. Another of the accused, Seirosa Sia Milo, 27, ordered a co-conspirator this March to rough up another as discipline for violating "house rules" and to intimidate the person from talking to investigators, the indictment alleges.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Thoreson said she could not discuss that assertion or other specifics of the case while it is pending, but she said the bust represented a major blow to the organization. Though the case is not being prosecuted as gang-related, Thoreson noted that her task force "tend(s) to work on gang-related cases."

"I think that it's a significant effort on the law enforcement agents' ability to be able to clean up a crew that has been affecting a large amount of society here in Anchorage, not only with their drug activity but with their gun activity as well," Thoreson said. "It's a significant amount of drugs that were making their way into the streets of Anchorage."

The indictment alleges that Mendiola used pre-paid cell phones to coordinate the conspiracy from Anchorage, while Diego Sebastian Munoz, 27, was in charge of shipping the drugs from Van Nuys, a suburb of Los Angeles. Once the drugs were in Anchorage, Mendiola cooked the cocaine into crack and arranged for it to be sold across the state, with the proceeds being wired to California to pay for more drugs, the indictment claims.

Law enforcement made a major intercept in March 2007 when agents seized a parcel containing 6 kilograms of cocaine and a pound of methamphetamine that Jose Ruis, 22, allegedly shipped from Van Nuys to an apartment in the 8100 block of Northwind Drive in Anchorage.

Though he said he couldn't discuss the specifics of this case, Harvey Goehring, Drug Enforcement Administration special agent in charge of Alaska, said in general a kilo of cocaine being sold wholesale -- without being divided into smaller amounts -- can go for up to about $35,000 on Alaska's streets.

"Six kilos, that's 13, 14 pounds of cocaine, so that certainly isn't personal use," Goehring said. "Six kilograms equates to a very significant drug-trafficking organization, both for quantity of cocaine as well as quantity of money being involved."

In the days after the interception, investigators picked up a phone call Ruis made to another conspirator in which he said, "Tell Diego to get the hell out of there" as a warning of the breach, the indictment says.

The intercept, however, didn't stop the drug flow, with drug shipments and sales continuing into this fall, according to the indictment.

Four of the defendants were arraigned Tuesday before U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Beistline in Anchorage, with others to be handled in the coming days, Thoreson said.

Mendiola's lawyer, Bill Carey, said his client, who was first indicted with four others on Oct. 7, pleaded not guilty Tuesday. The superseding indictment handed down Thursday added to the first indictment the remaining defendants as well as the weapons charges, and Carey said he needs to discuss the case at length with Mendiola -- who is being held without bail -- to determine how to proceed.

"Obviously, we've got some serious charges here," Carey said. "The superseding indictment ... came as something of a surprise, so it made it a whole new ball game and we'll take it from here."

The drug conspiracy charges can bring between 10 years in prison and life, Thoreson said. Mendiola and Vongthongdy could face an additional 30 years in prison if convicted for possessing machine guns in furtherance of drug trafficking.

The others charged in connection with the drug conspiracy are: Timothy Ray Moore Jr., 27; Kenese Sene, 35; Bernard Yamura White, 27; Miguel Robles, 23; Vaughan Erickson, 29; Harold Cogo Graham, 22; and Patrick Allen Osburn, 26.

Two of those men, Vongthongdy and Erickson, remain on the run, Thoreson said. Anyone with information on their whereabouts is asked to call the Drug Enforcement Administration at 271-5033 or Anchorage police at 786-8900.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.