Four Mexican nationals are in jail, after a cocaine sweep in Manitowoc County. Manitowoc County Metro Drug Unit Lieutenant Mark Anderson says they've been working the case since July, and culminated Friday night in the village of Valders, with the purchase of an ounce of cocaine. "We arranged for the purchase of another ounce of cocaine of Manitowoc, and arrested him when he showed up to deliver it, and then we did a search warrant at one of the residences and found approximately 24 ounces of cocaine there," says Anderson, who adds that's the largest single cocaine package in his twenty years in narcotics.
Anderson says all four of the arrested men are from Mexico, and in Wisconsin illegally. "Each one told how they got here, some of them paying considerable money to coyotes to take them across the border," says Anderson, who says deportation back to Mexico is likely once the suspects are through with the courts process here. Anderson says other agencies, including the state Department of Justice, the FBI and the DEA, played a role in the investigation.