I-Team investigates valley drug trafficking with DEA
Dan Dobas is the Supervisor of the Palm Springs DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) Task Force.
Dobas, who also has a law degree and was an Army paratrooper, is one of the DEA’s best and brightest, having served tours in such hot spots as Pakistan and North Africa, as well as two tours in the Los Angeles/Riverside area.
He and other agents are cracking down on drug trafficking throughout the Coachella Valley.
“In my time with DEA, this is off the charts busy, I’ll tell you that right now,” Dobas said. “We’re busy five, even seven days a week sometimes.”
The News Channel 3 I-Team worked in cooperation with the DEA, riding along and seeing major trafficking spots like Interstate 10.
“We’re seeing methamphetamine, heroin, some cocaine, and we’re also starting to see fentanyl-related pills,” Frank Pepper, Assistant Special Agent in Charge for DEA’s Los Angeles Field Division Riverside District Office said.
Agents like Dobas and Pepper said Riverside and San Bernardino counties are a major transshipment point for narcotics coming over the border and stored in what are called “stash homes.”
Dobas and Pepper said these locations are residential properties throughout the valley used by trafficking organizations and kept under the radar from law enforcement.
“A lot of the homes are very well maintained on the exterior,” Pepper said. “You would never know driving by, but when we get into these places, they’re usually an awful mess,” Pepper said. “They can be very dangerous to actually be in, because they have not been maintained. They’re being used for one thing only, which is pretty much a residential warehouse for narcotics.”
Dobas said the east valley, in particular, has stash homes sometimes called ranches.
“They’re perfect locations because they’re difficult for law enforcement to look at,” Dobas said.
In our ride-along, Dobas took the I-Team to two previously-busted stash homes in the east valley.
The first being in Indio Hills, where agents found 30 pounds of black tar heroin in the garage.
Dobas, however, said this particular location is rare to find a stash home.
“It’s so isolated,” Dobas said. “Sometimes you’ve just to get lucky to find out that there’s some activity out here.”
Next, KESQ went to a Coachella home located in between Highway 86 and Interstate 10, where Dobas said they found meth in the garage and master bedroom, and an illegal cockfighting facility on the property.
“It was the most complex search warrant I’ve ever been involved in,” Dobas said. “We had four separate teams hit the property at the same time because there was a residence and structure on the left side of the property. There was a structure on the right side of the property. Behind the main house, there was a maze of trailers and Rs, and junk. It’s possible that a load came up on the 86 right behind us, got dropped off at this location, and it might have gone right back out to the 10, and went out to somewhere else in the U.S.”
The I-Team also obtained information from the DEA related to drugs making their way through the Coachella Valley.
In September 2014, authorities found 24 pounds of meth in Colorado.
Other cases involve drugs and money seized in Montana, Nebraska and South Dakota.
Dobas and Pepper said they’ll stay at it in the inland empire to keep the area safe with help from residents too.
“It runs the whole spectrum out here, so I just want my guys to stay aggressive,” Dobas said.
Dobas and Pepper said they credit their partnership with local law enforcement agencies, including the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and Palm Springs Police Department, and residents for submitting tips.
You can find that information by clicking here. DEA officials also recommend calling your local law enforcement to also submit a tip.
The News Channel 3 I-Team is investigating drug trafficking in the Coachella Valley, even riding along with local agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
I-Team Investigator Zak Dahlheimer rode along with Dobas to see previously busted valley stash homes. Tune in this Wednesday at 6:00 p.m. on KESQ News Channel 3 to find out what drugs are being brought into the valley, and where these drugs are going throughout the United States.
Frank Pepper, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge at the DEA Los Angeles Field Division Riverside District Office, said Riverside and San Bernardino Counties are a high trafficking area, with its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, and a number of what are called “stash homes.”
“We see a lot of homes being used and warehouses,” Pepper said. “It can also be RVs, it can be trailers, it can be any type of residential property used to store and further break down the quantity of drugs that can be shipped out across the country.”
Palm Springs DEA Task Force Supervisor Dan Dobas said his team is busy when it comes to investigating stash homes, and other trafficking activity all over the valley.
“In one six-week period, my group was involved in a wiretap investigation, where we seized directly 110 pounds of methamphetamine, five pistols, four assault rifles, all of which were stolen or un-registered,” Dobas said. “But at the same time, my guys helped to dismantle three clandestine narcotic laboratories. Two of which were methamphetamine, one of which was a pill laboratory. And in those three operations, we seized an additional 20 pounds of methamphetamine, a gallon of liquid methamphetamine, a large amount of pills, and a large amount of precursor chemicals. And then at the same time, we were involved in a surveillance operation, and we seized an additional 18 pounds of methamphetamine. So, you can see in just a six to eight week period, how busy we are.”
To submit a tip to the Drug Enforcement Administration go to www.DEA.gov.
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