{"id":223157,"date":"2026-03-17T04:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/223157\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T04:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:03:09","slug":"cops-smash-sacramento-drug-ring-moving-500-pounds-of-meth-in-operation-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/223157\/","title":{"rendered":"Cops smash Sacramento drug ring moving 500 pounds of meth in &#8216;Operation Meltdown&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Seventeen alleged drug traffickers are facing charges after authorities say they ran a sprawling methamphetamine pipeline that pumped hundreds of pounds of the drug every month across Northern California.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutors in Placer County announced Thursday that the suspects were charged with crimes including conspiracy and <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/03\/us-news\/record-california-meth-bust-made-after-illegal-dumping-tip-off\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">transporting large quantities of methamphetamine for sale<\/a> after an eight-month undercover probe dubbed \u201cOperation Meltdown.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The investigation began in July 2025 when an undercover detective bought several pounds of meth from a suspected dealer in North Auburn, according to the Placer County Sheriff\u2019s Office. What started as a single case quickly snowballed into what investigators described as a major trafficking network centered in Sacramento and feeding drugs into Placer County.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.80273438;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38802410\" width=\"474\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/500-pounds-meth-monthly-cops-123809597.jpg\" alt=\"Collage of seized drugs, firearms, cash, and drug paraphernalia by the Placer County Sheriff.\" class=\"wp-image-38802410\"  \/>Collage of seized drugs, firearms, cash, and drug paraphernalia by the Placer County Sheriff. placer_sheriff<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.80273438;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38802411\" width=\"474\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/500-pounds-meth-monthly-cops-123809614.jpg\" alt=\"Collage of 17 mugshots of arrested individuals, including 14 men and 3 women.\" class=\"wp-image-38802411\"  \/>Seventeen alleged drug traffickers are facing charges after authorities say they ran a sprawling methamphetamine pipeline.<br \/>\n placer_sheriff<\/p>\n<p>Authorities believe the organization was distributing about 500 pounds of meth every month across Sacramento and Placer counties.<\/p>\n<p>On March 12, nearly two dozen law-enforcement agencies fanned out across the region, raiding 25 homes and locations in coordinated search and arrest operations that led to multiple suspects being hauled to the Placer County Jail.<\/p>\n<p>During the sweep, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVzm5jaCf7x\/?img_index=1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">investigators said they seized 65 pounds of meth<\/a>, more than 7 kilograms of cocaine, about half a pound of MDMA, 26 firearms, over $100,000 in cash and what they described as a DMT lab.<\/p>\n<p>Sheriff\u2019s officials say some members of the alleged ring had ties to a Mexican drug trafficking organization and Sacramento-area drug and gun trafficking gangs.<\/p>\n<p>All 17 defendants have appeared in court and pleaded not guilty, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seventeen alleged drug traffickers are facing charges after authorities say they ran a sprawling methamphetamine pipeline that pumped&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[7,723,40528,4182,236,121,123,122,3586],"class_list":["post-223157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-california","tag-crime","tag-meth","tag-metro","tag-police","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223157","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=223157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}