(NewsNation) — “Operation Hotline Bling” was well underway in Riverside County, California when Sheriff’s deputies realized that one of the people arrested in the investigation into the Sinaloa drug cartel’s smuggling and distribution operation was one of their own.
Riverside County Sheriff’s correctional officer Jorge Oceguera-Rocha was arrested along with 14 others, according to a news release from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Sheriff’s Office.
Jorge Oceguera-Rocha, 25, was arrested in September. The release said he had more than 100 pounds of fentanyl pills in the trunk of his car. He resigned as a corrections officer.
The entire operation netted law enforcement an estimated $16 million in narcotics: 376 pounds of methamphetamine, 1.4 pounds of cocaine and enough fentanyl to produce 10 million doses.
Oceguera-Rocha has pleaded not guilty to possession of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance for sales, both felonies. He is due back in court on Monday.
The joint news release did not specifically link Oceguera-Rocha to the Sinaloa cartel, but did say he had “a pivotal role of trafficking large quantities of narcotics within Riverside County while off duty.”
The Sinaloa cartel was once helmed by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, perhaps one of the most prominent and powerful drug lords since the height of Pablo Escobar’s empire in the 1980s and early ’90s.