GILROY
– After three months of investigative work, Gilroy police teamed
with federal and regional drug enforcement agencies Friday to raid
four alleged drug-dealing houses on Johnson Way and Rosanna and
Hanna streets.
GILROY – After three months of investigative work, Gilroy police teamed with federal and regional drug enforcement agencies Friday to raid four alleged drug-dealing houses on Johnson Way and Rosanna and Hanna streets.
Police arrested seven people and said they seized a total of nearly one-and-a-quarter pounds of methamphetamine and a half-pound of marijuana. Gilroy police investigator Cherie Somavia said the drugs have a total street value of about $7,950: $7,500 for the meth and $450 for the marijuana.
Major drug dealing had been going on at 635 Johnson Way – less than two blocks from Gilroy High School – and 7030 Rosanna St., according to Somavia, who helped coordinate the sting.
Police also served search warrants at 7130 Hanna St., units A and B. Less dealing happened at these homes, Somavia said. One resident of each unit was arrested.
In serving a search warrant at the Rosanna Street house, the Gilroy Police Department’s Special Operations Group – equivalent to a SWAT – helped the department’s gang/drug specialty Anti-Crime Team.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency and the Unified Narcotics Enforcement Team also helped execute the raids, Somavia said, and the Regional Auto Task Force and Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in San Jose lent staff to the effort.
Somavia, an Anti-Crime Team member, said the dealers at the houses were connected, but she stopped short of calling them a drug ring.
“We’ve known about it for a long time,” she said, but added that setting up the raid took about three months.
At 7030 Rosanna, police found the marijuana and about 100 grams (a little less than a quarter pound) of meth.
They arrested married residents Sam Zamaripa, 40, and Eisa Isidoro Medina, 41, as well as Richard Galvan, 49, of 82 W. Las Animas Ave., and 18-year-old Mauricio Medina Vera of Hollister.
Zamaripa was booked into county jail on suspicion of possessing meth for sale, possessing meth and possessing marijuana for sale. Medina and Galvan may be charged with possession of meth, and Vera was suspected of resisting arrest.
Police found no one at the Johnson Street address, Somavia said, but they later arrested resident Jose Fernandez elsewhere and found nearly a pound of meth in his possession.
At 7130-A Hanna, police arrested Juan Ruvacaba on suspicion of possessing a small amount of cocaine.
Police later arrested Carlos Fernandez – who lives at 7130-B Hanna – elsewhere in connection with the search warrants.
