35 kilos of cocaine, heroin seized as authorities bust Indianapolis trafficking ring

Authorities on Thursday announced the dismantling of a multimillion-dollar drug ring in Indianapolis they say was the largest in recent history.

The announcement included the arrest this week of Geraldo Colon, a 46-year-old Indianapolis furniture store owner whom officials called the ringleader. Investigators confiscated more than 35 kilograms of cocaine and heroin, 42 pounds of methamphetamine, 25 guns and $4.5 million in cash.

The ring led to a total of 20 federal and 45 state arrests since officials began investigating in late 2013. With the latest arrests, U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler said, authorities have effectively killed a huge drug supplier for the city.

"Dismantling armed drug trafficking organizations is a critical component to our priority of reducing violent crime in Indianapolis," Minkler said.

He joined Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Chief Rick Hite, Marion County Prosecutor Terry Curry and other officials at a news conference Thursday afternoon.

"If you are selling heroin for money, I'll call it what it is: blood money," Minkler said.

Hite said the ring supplied other drug dealers in the city, including a trafficking ring in the Butler-Tarkington area that was broken up in January 2014. That ring, targeted during a probe called "Operation Family Ties," led IMPD officers to confiscate more than 6 kilograms of cocaine, nine guns, six vehicles and about $198,000.

Forty people were arrested during that investigation, including Wade Havvard, the alleged ringleader who was charged with 10 others in federal court. Officials on Thursday said that bust was what first led them to identify Colon as "a major target."

David Allender, who works with IMPD's Covert Operations Branch, said the latest bust showed the importance of taking down large-scale drug rings that act as suppliers.

"By taking the profit margin away from the upper level, it cuts down on how much the lower level is going to be able to do," Allender said.

Also arrested in the ring announced Thursday were Darrell Fuqua, 39, Agustin Osuna-Toquillas, 26, and Marco Antonio Bueno-Acosta, 24, officials said. Fuqua was from Indianapolis, while Osuna-Toquillas and Bueno-Acosta told officials they were from Mexico. All four face federal charges of conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine.

Officials allege the supply for Colon's ring came from Tempe, Ariz. In May 2014, Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Phoenix gave local officials information about large amounts of narcotics being shipped to the Indianapolis area.

After receiving the tip, IMPD officers set up surveillance on a house in Greenwood, according to a probable cause affidavit. Officers said they tracked a white Ford F150 from the house to two businesses: the Venue Mega Mall and the Muebleria Luz Furniture Store on West Pike Plaza Road, near Lafayette Road on the Northwestside. Both were operated by Colon, court documents said.

During a traffic stop, an IMPD narcotics detection dog led police to a kilogram of heroin that was hidden in the truck. Both occupants of the truck were arrested.

When investigators searched the house, in the 1100 block of Bomar Lane, they found $1.8 million in cash and drug packaging materials. One of the people arrested in the traffic stop also agreed to cooperate with police, the affidavit said, telling them the drug trafficking group traveled back and forth between Arizona and Indianapolis and brought several kilograms of drugs to Colon, known as "the furniture store guy."

That bust would lead to several more in connection with the case, which led police to three other houses in Indianapolis, several more kilograms of cocaine, heroin and meth, and more than $1 million more in cash.

Investigators on Tuesday arrested Fuqua, who they believed to be one of Colon's associates, after he picked up a box of cocaine and heroin from a house that was under surveillance, the affidavit said. Colon was arrested as he was leaving the Venue Mega Mall.

According to court documents, they searched him and his car and found $20,000, despite the fact that Colon had filed for bankruptcy last September.

Osuna-Toquillas and Bueno-Acosta were arrested while police served a search warrant at one of the houses under surveillance.

"By disrupting and dismantling major organizations that introduce and distribute the illegal drugs found in our streets," Hite said, "we can continue our focus on eliminating one of the major root causes of violence in our city."

Call Star reporter Jill Disis at (317) 444-6137. Follow her on Twitter: @jdisis.