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.
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. 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.
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. 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.