SAN FRANCISCO -- The arrest of three people and confiscation of $1 million worth of pure cocaine this week has barely scratched the surface of the traffic in that particular drug in San Francisco, police said Thursday.
'I'm not even sure that scratch is the right word,' says narcotics Sgt. Steve Gudelj.
'A little nick might be a bit more accurate.'
The arrests Tuesday night are believed to have shut down a $20 million a year cocaine operation, which Gudelj says is only a fraction of the Bay Area's cocaine trade.
'There are at least 50 more operations at the same level here, possibly more,' he said. 'That's 50 on their side and five of us on the other. Those aren't particularly good odds.'
He said only five narcotics officers were working at the levels that netted suspects Angel Luis Rivera, 45, John de Palma, 51, both believed to be using false identities, and Vivian Capla, 30. They were all booked with possession of cocaine for sale and de Palma on an additional weapons and stolen properties charge.
Although Gudelj says there's a lot of big operations in the city, most of the cocaine, he says, goes elsewhere.
'This is a major distribution point for cocaine. People move dope here, distribute it here, then their customers move it out and pass it into the drug markets in other cities.
'This city is, whether anyone wants to acknowledge it or not, a major clearinghouse on the cocaine trail.'
