BENTONVILLE - Authorities arrested 11 people in a drug operation that reached as far as Mexico, U.S. Attorney Conner Eldridge said Friday.
Eldridge and other law-enforcement officials announced the arrests and drug seizure at a news conference at the Benton County sheriff’s office.
On Monday, authorities served search warrants on three residences and a storage unit in Siloam Springs. The search turned up $18,845, two guns and about 6 pounds of methamphetamine, Eldridge said.
Ricardo Pulido-Clemente, 42; Martha Pulido, 19; Davna Hoepfner, 36; Suzanne Hathorn, 53; Alex Fernandez, 40; Leonel Padilla, 26; and Michael Stanfill, 43, will face federal charges in the case.
Leeroy Creekmore, 53; Angel Asucedo, 19; Erica Murguia, 22; and Gabriel Romero, 20, will face state charges in the case. Their cases will be handled by the Benton County prosecuting attorney’s office.
Authorities did not provide hometowns of the people arrested this week.
The investigation began in December, when Arturo Vaca-Raya of Springdale was arrested with 15 pounds of methamphetamine, Eldridge said. Since then, authorities have seized more than $60,000 in an investigation named Operation West End Gambler. The investigation began as result of a traffic stop by a Benton County sheriff’s deputy.
Vaca-Raya later was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
“Bringing drugs [into] our neighborhoods and around our schools is totally unacceptable,” Eldridge said.
Tommy Flowers of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Fayetteville office said methamphetamine is brought into Texas from Mexico. The drugs in Operation West End Gambler were transported from Texas to Northwest Arkansas by vehicles or on a bus, Flowers said.
Sheriff Kelly Cradduck described the drug bust as sizable but said the arrests will not end area drug crimes.
“As long as there is a demand, there will be a supply for it,” Cradduck said.
Eldridge said the investigation is still ongoing.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 10/26/2013