Santa Ana : 3 Restaurant Workers Held, Cocaine Seized

Three employees of a Santa Ana restaurant were arrested and 1 1/2 pounds of cocaine were seized there Tuesday afternoon, culminating a five-month undercover investigation, police said Wednesday.

Arrested were Jose Barba Jauregui, 31; Rafael Diaz Fuentes, 35, and Victoriano Delgado Salgado, 26, all of Santa Ana, officers said. The three were being held at County Jail on $25,000 bail, Brea Police Lt. Jim Winder said.

Narcotics detectives from Santa Ana, Fullerton and La Habra police departments were involved in the investigation, which was headed by Brea’s Special Enforcement Detail.

“The investigation involved the conspiracy between these subjects from Tijuana’s restaurant and two suspects who were arrested in October of 1986,” Sgt. Mike Messina of the Brea Special Enforcement Detail said in a prepared statement. Those arrests were made in Yorba Linda, which is patrolled by Brea police. The two arrested then were Matthew Wayne Fujimura, 21, and Paul Anthony Castro, 24, both of Placentia.

The Tuesday arrests came after three search warrants were served simultaneously at 5 p.m. in Santa Ana, Winder said, at two homes and at Tijuana’s restaurant, 1030 S. Main St.

Officers allegedly seized 1 1/2 pounds of cocaine, cocaine paraphernalia, weapons and ammunition, as well as paper work that allegedly documented a conspiracy to possess and sell cocaine, Winder said. He said stolen videotape recorders also were seized.

Most of the cocaine and stolen property were found at the restaurant, where the three suspects worked, Winder said.