The Placer County Special Operations Unit executed a major drug trafficking takedown, resulting in the arrests of 17 people.<\/p>\n
The investigation began in the Summer of 2025 and focused on a large-scale drug trafficking network operating primarily out of Sacramento and supplying drugs into Placer County.<\/p>\n
On Thursday,\u00a0warrants were executed at 25 locations across Sacramento County, the City of Sacramento, Placer County, and Elk Grove.\u00a0According to the Placer County Sheriff’s Office, the organization included suspects who were affiliated with a Mexican drug trafficking operation as well as suspects connected to two Sacramento area gangs.<\/p>\n
Seventeen suspects were arrested and transported to the Placer County Jail:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Esteban Ortega, 39Loc Dinh, 33Robert Stewart, 61Junior Mai, 27Alejandro Herrera, 41Kevin Berry, 51Laeilia Leffler, 42Michael Elliot, 41Julian Montano, 32Joe Saetern, 28Shawnray Shermer, 35Theodore St. Andre, 41Thomas Wood, 55Don Wedgeworth, 82Carl Spinella, 55Joshua Seaphanh, 19Jennifer Lowry, 46<\/p>\n
All will be charged through the Placer County District Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n
During the operation, law enforcement seized:\u00a0<\/p>\n
65 Pounds of Meth7.25 Kilos of Cocaine\u00bd Pound of Molly26 Firearms$100k+ in Cash1 DMT Lab<\/p>\n
It’s estimated the network distributed approximately 500 pounds of methamphetamine monthly throughout Sacramento and Placer County.<\/p>\n
Operation Meltdown was a coordinated effort involving multiple law enforcement agencies including:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sacramento County Sheriff\u2019s OfficeSacramento Police DepartmentCitrus Heights PDFolsom Police DepartmentWest Sacramento Police DepartmentCA CorrectionsATFFBI – SacramentoCalifornia Department of JusticeCity of Roseville, California Police DepartmentPlacer County District Attorney’s OfficeRocklin Police DepartmentAuburn Police Department\u00a0Placer Regional Auto Theft Task ForceWestern Nevada Enforcement TeamSacramento Auto Theft Task ForceTrident Unit (Placer County DA\u2019s Office)Placer Special Investigations UnitWoodland Police Department<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Placer County Special Operations Unit executed a major drug trafficking takedown, resulting in the arrests of 17…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100935,100941,7,9,8,723,730,100942,100936,724,720,100939,25118,2781,24650,100940,734,2330,100943,722,29386,100938,100934,12651,10288,100944,100937],"class_list":["post-220629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-activities-of-criminal-organizations","tag-black-markets","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-crime","tag-crimes","tag-criminal-groups","tag-criminal-groups-and-organizations","tag-criminal-justice","tag-criminal-law","tag-criminal-subcultures","tag-deviance-sociology","tag-drugs","tag-gangs","tag-illegal-drug-trade","tag-law-enforcement","tag-legal-action","tag-members-of-criminal-organizations","tag-misconduct","tag-organized-crime","tag-organized-crime-activity","tag-organized-crime-groups","tag-pharmacology","tag-placer-county","tag-psychoactive-drugs","tag-social-aspects-of-psychoactive-drugs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}