Breckenridge – Summit County officials and federal investigators have arrested 34 people and broken up five interconnected mountain- town drug rings in an undercover sting, authorities announced Tuesday.
Standing over a table loaded with bags of seized cocaine and marijuana and two handguns, authorities said the four-month investigation would make a major dent in the area’s drug trade.
“What we started to see recently … is drug traffickers decide, ‘Hey, that’d be a great growth market – a resort community, Breckenridge, Summit County – maybe I’ll expand my business to that area,”‘ said Jeffrey Sweetin, special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Rocky Mountain field division. “Their assumption is that the relative lack of law enforcement resources … will keep them safe.”
Recognizing a growing trend in drug traffic, however, each of the county’s law enforcement agencies collaborated in the investigation. Undercover agents made dozens of purchases and learned enough about the underground rings to execute search warrants in four homes.
The dealers, who cooperated with one another, typically brought up small amounts of drugs from the metro area and used couriers as young as 16 to distribute them, officials said.
Among those arrested on drug possession and distribution charges were alleged ringleaders Michael Osorio-Montenegro, 18, of Silverthorne; Gustavo “Manny” Carrasco- Torres, 25, of Breckenridge; and Luis Edgar Lima-Ortiz, 26, of Dillon.
Staff writer Steve Lipsher can be reached at 970-513-9495 or slipsher@denverpost.com.
