On Wednesday, March 25, 2009, at about 12:00 PM, the Santa Monica Police Department and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) successfully concluded “OPERATION: MAMA” with the arrest of Maria Lucia Fuentes and Jose Giovanni Franco. Officers and agents seized of over two pounds of black tar heroin, worth in excess of $25,000.

Santa Monica Narcotics Investigators identified Fuentes and Franco as a team running a prolific heroin-selling operation that provided a delivery service to their customers.

The heroin-selling team operated throughout Santa Monica, Venice, and Culver City. Fuentes was known as “Mama” to her customers, and often wore brightly colored medical scrubs while she personally sold heroin in amounts that ranged from a few grams up to a few pounds.

Santa Monica Narcotics Investigators arrested Fuentes and Franco as the couple sat inside their car, which was parked inside a parking lot, at a neighborhood drug store in Inglewood. The couple was waiting to complete a large heroin sale. After the arrest, narcotics investigators executed a search warrant at the Inglewood residence of Fuentes and Franco and additional heroin was seized.

Fuentes and Franco were transferred into Federal custody and were arraigned Thursday on narcotics trafficking charges.