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Heroin Ring Suspects Nabbed: Arpaio Says Phoenix Man Led Operation in Scottsdale

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Andrea Falkenhagen, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Mar. 23--The main heroin supplier in a gang that targeted Scottsdale teenagers is behind bars after detectives saw him use his special-needs son to deliver drugs, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio said Wednesday.

The announcement was the latest revelation in a nearly two-year-long investigation into what Arpaio calls a "black tar heroin ring" that sold to affluent young people in the north East Valley.

Cecilio "Reggie" Lerma Ayon, 35, and four others were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of selling heroin, Arpaio said in a news conference in his central Phoenix office. Ten heroin buyers, including some Arizona State University students, also were arrested earlier this month, he said.

Investigators believe Ayon of Phoenix was responsible for supplying the heroin to a 16-year-old Cave Creek boy who died in April of a drug overdose in his home.

"As far as this gang is operating, I think we got the head," Arpaio said.

The only way investigators could go further up the drugring hierarchy would be to go to Mexico, he said.

Deputies said that Ayon's father, Gilberto Lerma Lopez, 67, made a trip to Mexico almost weekly to purchase up to a pound of heroin for distribution in the Valley.

On Tuesday, undercover sheriff's deputies saw Ayon's 10-year-old son, who is developmentally disabled, deliver 50 grams of heroin to a dealer in the play area of a fast-food restaurant in central Phoenix.

Arpaio said the boy believed he has been delivering "medicine" during the past few weeks.

The boy is now living with family members.

"Due to our intensive investigation, the major suppliers were leery of detectives and decided to use the 10-year-old to deliver heroin," Arpaio said.

The undercover operation also led to the other suspects, who were arrested earlier this month.

Last March, deputies arrested 11 Mexican nationals and 18 young adults on drug charges, stunning the north East Valley community with reports of a sophisticated drug-dealing network that sold heroin, cocaine and other drugs to Scottsdale students.

Deputies used confiscated cell phone records to identify 146 potential heroin buyers, and later went door to door to alert parents that their children had been calling drug dealers.

As for the death of the Cave Creek youth, Arpaio said, "We weren't able to knock on his door. We didn't have his name. If we had, we might have been able to tell his parents."

The investigation led the Scottsdale Unified School District to approve drug-sniffing dogs in the hallways, though no drugs have been found in those searches.

Arpaio said he believes school officials are ignoring the heroin problem, and that a "code of silence" surrounding the drug ring needs to be broken.

"We have a heroin problem and this proves it," he said of Tuesday's arrests, adding that drug-sniffing dogs won't solve anything -- he prefers random drug-testing in schools.

School officials were unaware of the arrests, said district spokesman Keith Sterling.

"We were told by the sheriff that we were going to be kept in the loop of further investigations and this is the first time I've heard about this," Sterling said Wednesday morning.

Timeline

August 2004: Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio says 22 arrests are made in "black tar heroin ring" that targeted Scottsdale teenagers.

March 2005: Arpaio announces that 146 people, most teenagers from Scottsdale, were buying, selling or using drugs as part of the "heroin ring." Arpaio says numerous illegal immigrants have been arrested in connection with sales of drugs in the ring.

April 2005: A 16-year-old Cave Creek boy dies in his home of a heroin overdose.

July 2005: Authorities say they don't know the location of nine of 15 illegal immigrants charged in connection with the ring's heroin sales.

August 2005: Scottsdale Unified School District begins drug-sniffing dog program at high schools.

March 2006: Sheriff's deputies arrest 10 suspected heroin buyers and five suspected dealers, including possibly the main heroin supplier in the Scottsdale ring, Arpaio says.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

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Source: The Tribune

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