Major Drug Ring Busted in San Diego

Federal drug enforcement officials in San Diego announced on Thursday that they had brought down a large scale drug trafficking organization that delivered methamphetamine and cocaine to the streets of San Diego. Most of the alleged traffickers were arrested on February 20th, but some of the suspects remain at large. Twelve of the defendants arrested on Wednesday resided in north county San Diego, including seven in Vista, two in San Marcos and three in Oceanside.

“This organization was distributing multipound quantities of methamphetamine in our cities, and making a huge profit,” said William Sherman, acting special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in San Diego. Sherman

Sherman made national headlines last year when a University of California San Diego engineering student was held in a DEA cell for days without food or water. The student, 24-year-old Daniel Chong, was nearly dead when federal agents found him making noise five days after he had been handcuffed inside his cell. Chong was arrested along with eight others when DEA agents raided an apartment where Chong and his friends were smoking marijuana. Agents claimed that the apartment contained weapons, psychedelics, mushrooms and prescription medication.

After Chong was discovered severely dehydrated and malnourished, Agents took him to the hospital where he spent three days in the intensive care unit. It took more than a week and a half and the story reaching national news before the DEA finally issued a public apology. Special agent William Sherman, the official responsible for the detention facility, said he had the "deepest apologies" for the way Chong was treated.

Public reaction to the incident largely condemned the DEA in support of Chong. Barbara Boxer demanded that the Department of Justice issue a thorough investigation of the incident. Representatives Darrel Issa and Duncan Hunter demanded a congressional investigation and a complete account of the DEA's detention policies. Chong's attorneys issued a statement that they were going to sue the DEA for $20 million.