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AssetID: 35528935

Headline: Drug Bust: Aztec Statues Contained Meth

Caption: U.S. authorities have discovered nearly 12 kilograms of narcotics made to look like decorative Aztec calendars and statues. Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), arrested eight defendants Tuesday (16 Oct) named in a grand jury indictment that alleges a scheme to send methamphetamine to Hawaii. The arrests, conducted with partners from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Cypress Police Department, follow the filing of a seven-count indictment on October 10. A ninth defendant charged in the indictment was already in federal custody on an unrelated case. The indictment alleges a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, including an attempted shipment on July 17 of 11.7 kilograms of pure methamphetamine from a post office in Garden Grove. Those drugs were part of a nearly 90-pound shipment that appeared to be colourful, decorative Mexican items, including replicas of the 500-year-old Aztec calendar stone. “Methamphetamine – no matter how it’s packaged – is a powerful drug that devastates our communities,” said Mark Zito, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for HSI Los Angeles. “HSI will continue to closely collaborate with our federal, state and local law enforcement partners to keep this dangerous contraband from reaching our streets.” The indictment also alleges that members of the conspiracy, over the past year, sent to Hawaii a package containing about two pounds of methamphetamine and another with nearly five pounds of the drug. All three of the narcotic shipments alleged in the indictment were intercepted by law enforcement. The eight defendants taken into custody were expected to be arraigned on the indictment in U.S. District Court in Santa Ana. If convicted of the charges in the indictment, each defendant would face a mandatory minimum sentence of at least five years in federal prison, and each potentially could be sentenced to decades in prison.

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