3 Men Arrested, Drugs and Weapons Seized

A six-week investigation by the Ventura/Oxnard Narcotic Enforcement Team led to separate arrests of three county residents that resulted in confiscation of $75,000 worth of cocaine and two weapons.

Alfredo Cazares, 32, who authorities said is in the country illegally, was arrested Thursday afternoon on the Ventura Freeway at Rancho Road in Thousand Oaks. A search of the car he was driving turned up about one-half kilogram of cocaine.

Less than five hours later, Felipe Garcia, 25, of Camarillo was pulled over on Ponderosa Drive west of Mobil Avenue in Camarillo. He was later arrested on suspicion of transporting three-quarters of a kilogram of cocaine and possession of a loaded weapon, said Sgt. Mike Matlock of the Oxnard Police Department.

The third arrest came Thursday afternoon during a search of an apartment in the 2600 block of Ventura Boulevard in Oxnard, where officers found 26-year-old Ruben Guajardo, of Oxnard in possession of a gun reported stolen in a 1995 residential burglary in Ventura, Matlock said.

Cazares was being held without bail Friday night at Ventura County Jail and will likely be handed over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to a jail spokeswoman. Guajardo was booked into County Jail on suspicion of receiving stolen property. His bail was $5,000, the spokeswoman said.

Garcia was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail and was being held on $100,000 bail, said a jail spokeswoman.