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Bust nets $46,000 in cash and drugs

June 04, 2007|Samieh Shalash

A mother and son were arrested by the Clark County Sheriff's Office on Sunday in its biggest drug bust since 2003.

Officers found $21,356 cash and more than $25,000 worth of drugs at the trailers of Suzette R. Espinosa-Pina, 44, and her son Michael A. Deharak, 25, at about 2 p.m.

A nearly five-hour search netted drugs and cash stashed all over their homes at 500 and 504 Treehaven Drive, which officers searched after being tipped off by a confidential informant.

Sheriff Berl Perdue said they began to make a forced entry, but Espinosa-Pina opened the door.

"She was very surprised and screamed a little bit, then it was over," he said. "The guy was cool as a cucumber. I think he realized what was going on."

Officers found 1 pound of cocaine with a street value of $22,000, 1 pound, 11 ounces of marijuana worth $2,000 and 156 pills including Lortab, Xanex, morphine and OxyCotin, worth more than $1,200.

They also confiscated cash, mostly in stacked $100 bills. Some cocaine was found in a starch bottle with a false bottom in the laundry room, and more cash and drugs in a rolltop desk.

"There was stuff everywhere we looked," Perdue said. "We found something in every room."

A 2001 Honda Accord was also confiscated.

Espinosa-Pina and Deharak were both charged with trafficking cocaine and marijuana, three counts of trafficking a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphenlia, and having a prescription drug not in its proper container.

Both suspects are being held at the Clark County Detention Center on a $50,000 cash bond. A warrant is out for the arrest of Espinosa-Pina's husband, Aurelio Espionsa-Pina.

The last major drug bust by the sheriff's office was in 2003, when an indoor grow operation of 105 marijuana plants was discovered in Yorktowne Mobile Estates. Their potential value was $100,000.

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