CLEVELAND, Ohio— A California shipping company owner used semitractor trailers to ship “substantial” amounts of drugs to Cleveland and elsewhere across the Midwest and Northeast, according to federal investigators.
Nefer Ojeda-Elenes of Upland, California, is charged in Cleveland federal court with conspiracy to distribute drugs and possessing with the intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl. Ojeda-Elenes owns Racoon Transportation LLC and Ojeda Brothers Trucking, court records say.
Authorities arrested Ojeda-Elenes on Tuesday. U.S. District Magistrate Judge Jonathan Greenberg ordered Ojeda-Elenes to remain in federal custody until a hearing on Feb. 7. cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to Ojeda-Elenes’ attorney, Michael Maloney, for comment.
The arrest followed a largescale investigation that spanned from the West Coast to Philadelphia and used several federal agencies and local police task forces along the way.
Local investigators conducted tight surveillance on Ojeda-Elenes and other suspected members of the drug ring, going so far as detailing trips to McDonald’s and unexplained stops at area dry cleaners.
Six others are named as suspects in the criminal complaint. One, Ronald Rendon-Luna of Painesville, was arrested on Monday and faces similar charges as Ojeda-Elenes. Another suspect served a five-year federal prison sentence for dealing drugs in the Columbus area.
Phone numbers for Ojeda-Elenes and Rendon-Luna were already logged in a law enforcement database as being targets of three active federal drug investigations across the country, according to court records. One case involved St. Louis-based U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents, who surreptitiously bought four pounds of methamphetamine directly from Ojeda-Elenes, according to court records.
A Cleveland FBI drug task force, along with the Internal Revenue Service and Central Valley, California, officers started their investigation into Ojeda-Elenes in August 2021, court records say.
Investigators used GPS devices agents planted on several cars and semis and GPS coordinates from cellphones members of the group used, all after getting permission from judges in California and Ohio.
In late March and earlier April, California investigators used an informant to buy 15 pounds of meth from a suspected associate named Carlos Lopez in Perris, California, court records say.
Agents trailed Lopez for months and watched him meet with Ojeda-Elenes at a parking lot in California, according to court records. Another car pulled up and two men loaded the truck with suspected drugs as investigators snapped photos from afar, court records say.
Investigators tracked the truck as far east as Philadelphia. On its return trip, it stopped at a rest stop in Richfield near Interstate 77.
During long stays in Ohio, Ojeda-Elenes lived at a home on Galewood Drive, just south of St. Clair Avenue in Cleveland’s Euclid-Green neighborhood. Investigators watched people drive up to the house and deliver packages that investigators believed were drug payments, court record say.
Ojeda-Elenes and other members of the operation drove back and forth between two storage facilities— A Cube Smart in Middleburg Heights and another Cube Smart in Cleveland’s Glenville neighborhood. Investigators wrote in court records that they suspected the group stored drugs and money there. Other members then dropped cash off at the semis parked in Richfield, and couriers drove the money back to California, court records say.
Ojeda-Elenes and others also made several stops at laundromats on St. Clair Avenue and Cedar Road in Cleveland. In one instance, Ojeda-Elenes walked into the laundromat on Cedar Road and left carrying a satchel. Investigators noted in court records they were unsure what was inside the satchel.
Agents also followed them to a building on Lorain Avenue near West 132nd Street, to the home of a suspected drug-ring member in Lorain and to a Sheffield Lake hotel, where Rendon-Luna stayed the night on Sept. 12. Investigators searched the room after he left and found traces of cocaine, according to court records.
Investigators also sifted through trash at Ojeda-Elenes’ Cleveland home, finding a ledger with recorded drugs sales and items used to package drugs, like vacuum sealers.
On Sunday and Monday, agents began raiding the houses and storage units. They reported finding 66 pounds of cocaine and fentanyl in the Glenville storage unit and three guns inside Rendon-Luna’s Painesville home.
In the Middleburg Heights storage facility, agents reported finding vacuum sealed stacks of cash. As of Tuesday, agents hadn’t tallied up the total amount. Small bags of fentanyl and meth were found at Ojeda-Elenes’ Cleveland home, court records say.
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