Three men allegedly involved in a Mexican drug cartel appeared in court Wednesday after being arrested with $300,000 worth of drugs in their Smyrna apartment in October, Channel 2 Action News reported.
Lorenzo Pineda-Picaz, Erik Tamayo and Leonel Tamayo were arrested Oct. 30 by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration at an apartment complex off Atlanta Road, Channel 2 reported. A traffic stop in Gwinnett County involving another alleged cartel member the day before led agents to the apartment, the news station reported.
An undercover DEA captain testified that the man involved with the traffic stop tried to warn the others, Channel 2 reported.
When agents arrived at the apartment, they said they found $300,000 worth of cocaine and heroin, the news station reported. Nine kilograms of cocaine and one kilogram of heroin were seized.
The captain testified that this was part of a much larger drug cartel operation, Channel 2 reported.
The captain said agents had been monitoring the apartment building for several weeks, and his team tapped phone lines and listened to conversations between the alleged cartel members, the news station reported.
Pineda-Picaz, Erik Tamayo and Leonel Tamayo each face two felony drug trafficking charges and have holds placed on them by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to Cobb County jail records.
They remain in the Cobb County Jail without bond, records show.
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