Six Charged with Heroin Trafficking in Gaston and Mecklenburg Counties

CHARLOTTE, NC—Federal agents and local officers arrested four individuals this morning on allegations contained in federal criminal complaints of trafficking as much as one kilogram or more of so-called “black-tar” heroin in Gaston and Mecklenburg Counties.

The arrests are based on criminal complaints issued by a federal magistrate judge in the Western District of North Carolina. Those individuals named in the federal criminal complaints (list attached) and who are in federal custody at this time are pending detention hearings in federal court on August 10.

The arrests are part of an ongoing investigation, code-named “Operation Dirty Girl 3," being conducted by a multi-agency Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force in which the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, Charlotte- Mecklenburg Police Department, and Gastonia Police Department, along with other law enforcement agencies, participate. The Task Force has made other arrests and seizures in the Western District of North Carolina in recent weeks, including several in June and several in July.

Today’s announcement is made by Edward R. Ryan, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina; Owen D. Harris, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Operations in North Carolina; Chief Tim Adams of the Gastonia Police Department; Tony Underwood, Special Agent in Charge of the Southern Piedmont District of the North Carolina SBI; and Chief Rodney Monroe of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. These law enforcement agencies worked together on this morning’s arrest activity. The prosecution is being handled for the government by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven R. Kaufman.

According to official court documents and information brought out in court proceedings, the heroin was allegedly received from Mexico and then the participants used a local “dispatch” system through which purchasers called a phone number, a dispatcher directed the purchaser to a nearby location, and a “runner” met the purchaser in another vehicle to conduct the transaction. Affidavits in support of the complaints describe how five of the individuals were recorded arranging heroin transactions on court-authorized phone wiretaps, and detail numerous transactions made with three of the individuals charged today.

The charges contained in the complaints are allegations. In the American justice system, a person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty at trial or by guilty plea.

Federal Criminal Complaint Number 3:09-mj-173

Sergio Rosas GARCIA
Also known as “BOSSMAN”
Mexico, age 24, not yet arrested

Wilfredo ANDUJAR
Also known as “ROLANDO CASANOVA,” “FREDDY,” “BUDDY,” and “BORI”
Puerto Rico, age 44, in federal custody

Nancy Tebbe ROTOLO
United States, age 52, in local custody

James Lee THOMPSON
Also known as “BUDDY”
United States, age 46, in federal custody

Anthony Britt MOORE
United States, age 39, in federal custody
Complaint number 3:09-mj-187

Irvin Josue Navarro RAMIREZ
also known as “JORGE”
Mexican, age 25, in federal custody