Testimony points to California-Decatur drug pipeline

Dec. 14—A California-to-Decatur drug connection was at the forefront of testimony in Morgan County Circuit Court on Tuesday at the preliminary hearings of defendants charged with trafficking after two drug busts.

Morgan County District Judge Shelly Waters found probable cause and sent the cases of five defendants in one drug bust and one defendant in the other to the grand jury after hearing testimony from investigators.

One of the stings involved marijuana.

The defendants, from California, were in Decatur in early November, allegedly to deliver nearly 200 pounds of marijuana to a confidential informant with the North Alabama Drug Task Force (NADTF). All five defendants are being held in the Morgan County Jail with bail set at $1 million each.

The other drug bust involved methamphetamine. The defendants in that case remain jailed after Morgan County drug agents say authorities tracked a package containing more than 3 pounds of methamphetamine from California to a Southwest Decatur apartment complex.

Waters denied bond reductions for two of the defendants that requested it, saying she was concerned because they had "no ties to north Alabama and we may never see them again."

Charged with drug trafficking in connection with the marijuana arrests were Christina Camacho Gomez, 27, of Tipton, California; Rene Rinconi Varona, 31, of Adelando, California; Alfredo Rinconi Reyes, 33, of Sacramento, California; Adrian Farias, 19, of Fresno, California; and Balfre Rinconi Gonzalez, 43, listed as a transient.

The street value of the marijuana is about $1.5 million, according to court documents.

Questioned in Waters' courtroom by Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Shiver, NADTF agent Blake Dean said a confidential informant set the deal in motion by purchasing two Western Union money grams from Walmart totaling $8,000 as initial payment to Gomez on Oct. 7.

Dean said Gomez contacted the informant to advise that on Oct. 12, the truck delivering the marijuana had been stopped in Oklahoma and seized.

The informant got a message on Nov. 1 saying another truck from California with the marijuana was en route, Dean said.

The next day the informant made contact with the five defendants at the Waffle House at 710 Sixth Ave. N.E. near the Motel 6, Dean testified.

He said agents observed Varona and Gomez meeting the informant in the restaurant's parking lot, and the three went to a gold Cadillac Escalade with a California license plate. Varona and Gomez showed the informant two bags of marijuana that each weighed about 1 pound and that were wrapped in a blanket, Dean testified.

Gomez told the informant she could sell him more than 100 pounds of marijuana, according to an affidavit filed earlier by Dean.

Dean said the task force agents observed the five defendants leaving the restaurant and parking the Escalade next to a white Toyota 4Runner with a California license plate in the motel parking lot.

The informant then called Gomez and said he wanted to purchase the additional 100 pounds, the affidavit said.

The informant met the group at Waffle House again and then led the two vehicles along Church Street Southeast to an apartment complex parking lot in the 2300 block of Eighth Street Southeast near Point Mallard. Dean said agents followed the three vehicles.

"Once they parked, Camacho (Gomez) got out of the Escalade, and we took them down," Dean said. "It all went down very fast."

He said some of the marijuana was bagged in a suitcase and some was packed high in the back of the 4Runner. "The windows were taped and you could only see in a small area," he said.

Dean said Farias, who was driving the 4Runner, "claimed to have no knowledge of anything and stated he forgot why he came to Alabama and how he got here."

Dean said Gomez, the contact person in the transaction, cried during questioning and the informant said she had "ties to a Mexican drug cartel."

"Camacho did admit she was contacted (about the drug deal). She denied she brought it," he testified. "She denied everything else."

He said a woman at the Motel 6 hotel room registered to the defendants said she drove the rented 4Runner from California, but said it did not have drugs in it. She was not charged, court records show.

The drug task force team is a multi-jurisdictional federal drug task force led by the Huntsville Police Department.

Meth charge

Appearing at a separate preliminary hearing Tuesday was defendant Victor F. Nava, who was arrested Nov. 12 in connection with an alleged shipment of methamphetamine through the U.S. Postal Service.

Morgan County Drug Task Force Senior Agent Jerald Jenkins testified that Nava had the package sent to his girlfriend's apartment on Carridale Street Southwest.

Nava's girlfriend, Keila Sanchez Diaz, also was charged with trafficking methamphetamine and her case was sent to the grand jury after her Nov. 22 preliminary hearing.

Jenkins said 3.1 pounds of methamphetamine, some marijuana, a pistol and cash were recovered during the searches of the two defendants' residences. Nava also resided in a Carridale Street apartment, according to court records.

Jenkins testified that Nava, 35, told Diaz and her daughters that a package containing sunglasses he ordered would be arriving at their apartment.

Jenkins said the U.S. Postal Service informed law enforcement a day before it arrived that a 6-pound package from California was headed to Diaz's apartment. It was addressed to Nana Gonzalez, which Jenkins said was a fictitious name.

Jenkins said $800 of the $2,109 found in Nava's coat pocket during a search of his apartment was marked money his unit used to purchase 56 grams of methamphetamine from Nava.

The Morgan County District Attorney's Office on Nov. 22 filed a civil forfeiture action against Nava for $2,109. If the forfeiture is successful, the Morgan County Sheriff's Office would receive 74% of the money and the DA's office would receive 24%, according to the complaint.

John Mays, attorney for Nava, said at the preliminary hearing that his client told Jenkins he knew nothing about the meth shipment.

"We purchased it between the first and fourth of November," Jenkins said about the drug transaction. "We have five videos of him talking about meth coming from California."

Nava remains jailed in lieu of $500,000 bond. Diaz is jailed in lieu of $250,000 bond.

District Attorney Scott Anderson said the easy access to the United States from Mexico is a root of some of the drug activity in Morgan County.

"These cases just go to show that drug dealers and drug traffickers are present and active in our community," he said. "This issue will continue, in my opinion, as long as the doors to our southern border are wide open."

— mike.wetzel@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2442. Twitter @DD_Wetzel.