Crime Correspondent: Los Angeles

Commander Carlos Alberto Cedano Filippini was arrested along with his wife and two other people during a routine anti-drugs raid in Los Angeles.

Carlos Alberto Cedano Filippini was arrested along with his wife and two other people during a routine anti-drugs raid in Los Angeles. He is a police commander in Baja California, a border state from which drugs flow into the United States. Two of his deputy commanders were shot dead there last Saturday. The US administration has made much of co-operation with Mexico against drugs. It has offered assistance to help rid the Mexican police force of suspected ties to the cartels which operate out of Baja California. Commander Filippini, 34, was arrested along with his wife, another Mexican policeman and a third man, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said. US Drug Enforcement Administration agents and Los Angeles police officers were involved in the arrests, which were not specifically targeted at the police chief. The DEA "didn't expect to get who we got", a spokeswoman said. Commander Filippini is the top agent in Mexicali, Baja California's state capital, for Mexico's Federal Agency of Investigation (AFI). His two top deputies, Gerardo Antonio Mendez Reyes and Javier Gerardo Duran Trevino, were shot to death in the city last Saturday night. No arrests have been made in connection with their killings.

Commander Carlos Alberto Cedano Filippini was arrested along with his wife and two other people during a routine anti-drugs raid in Los Angeles.

Carlos Alberto Cedano Filippini was arrested along with his wife and two other people during a routine anti-drugs raid in Los Angeles. He is...

Alexandru Sabau 100,000 Ecstasy tablets, which he intended to trade for 25 kilograms of cocaine

Alexandru Sabau, 37, was arrested near his apartment in Newport Beach Friday after he arrived for a roadside meeting to finalize a drug deal with an informant, Jennifer Silliman, deputy special agent in charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Los Angeles airport office said. Investigators found in the trunk of Sabau's rental car 100,000 Ecstasy tablets, which he intended to trade for 25 kilograms of cocaine, Silliman said. The pills typically sell for $20 each on the street, she said. "We believe this individual was seeking to bring significant quantities of Ecstasy into Southern California from Canada, which he told our informants he intended to use as collateral to obtain caches of cocaine for export back to Canada," Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of ICE's Los Angeles office said. Investigators executing a search warrant at Sabau's apartment also found a small amount of cocaine and about $14,000 in cash. Sabau was charged with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He was ordered held pending a July 8 bail hearing, ICE spokeswoman Virginia Kice said. He will be arraigned in U.S. District court July 21. His attorney, Deputy Federal Public Defender Hayne Yoon, declined to comment. Sabau's immigration status was under investigation, Kice said. His arrest capped a three-month undercover probe which arose from several minor narcotics cases in Santa Monica and West Los Angeles, authorities said.

Alexandru Sabau 100,000 Ecstasy tablets, which he intended to trade for 25 kilograms of cocaine

Alexandru Sabau, 37, was arrested near his apartment in Newport Beach Friday after he arrived for a roadside meeting to finalize a drug deal...

Hector Plama Salazar pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle Cocaine

Hector Plama Salazar pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle 50 kilos of cocaine from Mexico to the United States with the intent to distrib...