CHEYENNE, WYO. — Police have arrested 19 people they say are linked to a ring that smuggled more than 100 pounds of cocaine into southeast Wyoming over more than five years.
The cocaine came through Mexico and Denver before being distributed in the Cheyenne area, according to Don Farmer, leader of the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation’s Southeast Enforcement Team.
Farmer said police arrested 13 others in Cheyenne on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Police also arrested six people including Steven A. Gibson, 64, of Cheyenne, last fall. Gibson allegedly converted some of the cocaine to crack cocaine and sold both drugs in the area.
A search of Gibson’s home allegedly turned up 10 pounds of marijuana and a half pound of cocaine, according to the DCI.
The other five arrested last fall were Mexican citizens living in the Denver area. They included Basilio Montoya-Ramirez, 35, from whom Gibson allegedly got the drugs.
“They came up across the border in kilogram weights,” Farmer said Thursday. “They were housed in the metro Denver area and portions of those loads that came in were set aside to go to Cheyenne.” Authorities estimated the value of the cocaine at $1.6 million.
Several agencies took part in the investigation and arrests besides DCI, including the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office, Cheyenne Police Department, Denver Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Authorities said the investigation spun off from the investigation of a man who shot at sheriff’s deputies as they tried to arrest him in 2006.
That man, James Sali, was sentenced to 60 years in prison in part for his role in a methamphetamine distribution ring in the Cheyenne area. Police charged 31 people in that case and 25 have pleaded guilty.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver last week dismissed Sali’s appeal of his conviction.
