Police say a North Bay ice cream vendor was caught selling cocaine

Three North Bay road distributors had been arrested in June for allegedly promoting cocaine close to an elementary faculty, officers introduced in a information launch Monday.

In an announcement Monday, the Santa Rosa Police Division defined that investigators from its narcotics unit started an investigation in April into Victor Martinez Diaz, 49, who they suspected of dealing cocaine on West ninth Avenue close to Abraham Lincoln Elementary Faculty. Police stated Martinez Diaz additionally had a authorized enterprise promoting ice cream and different snacks.

Martinez Diaz rode a tricycle carrying his merchandise in varied containers and primarily bought his wares — each authorized and unlawful — on the identical stretch of West ninth Avenue, SRPD stated. The operation was foiled on June 12, after an undercover investigator purchased a gram of cocaine from Martinez Diaz in the identical space, police stated.

SRPD stated two different suspects, Jose Cazares, 21, and Marcos Ambrosio Cortes, 29, had been additionally recognized in reference to the months-long investigation, after they had been seen getting right into a automotive that was below investigators’ surveillance.

The three suspects “conspired collectively” to promote medicine, Patricia Sevens, a spokeswoman for the Santa Rosa Police Division, advised SFGATE. Sevens stated Martinez Diaz and Ambrosio Cortes lived collectively, however she wasn’t instantly positive of the connection between the three males apart from that all of them labored as road distributors.

Police executed search warrants on two autos and two different areas at the side of the investigation, together with one the place Martinez Diaz and Ambrosio Cortes had been dwelling, Sevens advised SFGATE. In these searches, investigators discovered roughly 10 grams of cocaine, 17 grams of methamphetamine and greater than $10,000 in money, in addition to three road vendor bicycles, a fanny pack with a semi-automatic handgun inside, a digital scale, and a whole lot of small items of plastic. Zipper luggage, in accordance with Monday’s assertion.

The three suspects had been booked into Sonoma County Jail the identical day, June 12, on suspicion of possession of a managed substance on the market, transportation of a managed substance on the market and conspiracy. Cazares was booked on suspicion of an extra cost of weapons throughout drug trafficking.

The three males had been launched from jail on pretrial supervision on June 16 and are free to await trial, Sevens stated.