5 arrested in Pueblo County’s largest pot bust to date
The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office searched six homes and made five arrests in a Cuban-connected pot bust that the office is calling “the largest such operation” to date.
The sheriff’s office says the bust was worth about $1.2 million — detectives seized 340 plants, about 70 pounds of dried marijuana product, thousands of dollars in cash, and thousands of dollars in grow equipment.
Investigators got a tip about an “illegal marijuana grow syndicate” operating out of six homes in Pueblo West. The sheriff’s office began working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and got search warrants for the houses.
PHOTOS: Pueblo County deputies make $1.2 million pot bust
Officers and deputies searched all six houses and found illegal marijuana grow operations in five of them. The homes were on N. Starkweather Lane, W. Cellini Drive, S. Fairknoll Lane, Sweetwater Drive, and E. Canary Drive, and they’ve all been condemned due to extensive alterations made for the grows.
Deputies say the five people arrested have connections to a Cuban syndicate with ties to Florida. Olga Alfonso-Hernandez, 49; Yuriesky Vazquez-Morales, 34; Yordan Medina Del-Sol, 31; Oniel Torna, 50 and Rayda Reyes Martinez, 51, were all arrested for possession with intent to dispense marijuana, cultivation of marijuana, and possession of 12 ounces or more of marijuana. Torna also faces a charge for child abuse.
MUGSHOTS: Five arrested in large Pueblo County marijuana bust
All five have been booked into the Pueblo County Jail.
