Fugitive drug dealer’s charges dismissed
U.S. Attorney’s office won’t disclose why move was made
SAN FRANCISCO — A suspected Bay Area drug dealer listed as a fugitive for 12 years recently was dismissed as a federal defendant, and U.S. Attorneys aren’t saying why.
Since 2005, Saul “Jalaka” Vega-Robles was wanted on unresolved charges connected to a large-scale methamphetamine and cocaine trafficking ring that was busted in the early 2000s. In late February, federal prosecutors moved to dismiss the charges and quash his arrest warrant. Vega-Robles’ picture and listing as a wanted fugitive disappeared from the DEA’s website shortly thereafter.
Additionally, U.S. Attorneys dismissed pending drug charges against another alleged co-conspirator, identified as Jesus “Mundo” Edmundo Carrazco-Chavez.
A U.S. Attorney spokesman declined to comment on why the charges were dismissed.
Saul Vega-Robles is thought to have played a relatively minor role in the ring, but his older brothers — Sergio Vega-Robles and Jose “Calacas” VegaRobles — are listed as the ring’s leaders in court documents. Authorities say the older Vega-Robles brothers were obtaining drugs from a source in Sinaloa, Mexico and importing them to the Bay Area for distribution.
It’s unclear what Carrazco-Chavez’s suspected role in the drug ring was, but a 2005 affidavit says the FBI wiretapped a conversation between him and Sergio Vega-Robles, where Carrazco-Chavez called Vega-Robles from a Mexican phone number and told him a car was coming up from Los Angeles full of drugs.
Days later, authorities pulled over a car thought to be involved, and found 44 pounds of cocaine. Another 100 pounds were found in a subsequent search of a home connected to the courier, the affidavit says.
After they were arrested, Sergio and Jose Vega-Robles’ lives went in different directions; Jose Vega-Robles was convicted of murdering an Aryan Brotherhood drug dealer named Darryl Grockett, in part thanks to his brother — Sergio Vega-Robles, who became a state’s witness.
Last year, another man — Coby Phillips — was convicted of helping Jose Vega-Robles murder Grockett. Phillips, the cofounder of a local white gang, worked alongside the Vega-Robles brothers, making hundreds of thousands of dollars per year selling methamphetamine, until he was arrested and charged in 2005.
Prosecutors say Grockett was planning to rob the Vega-Robles brothers, and that Phillips helped set him up to be killed to protect his “cash cow.”
Phillips and Jose VegaRobles continue to maintain their innocence. A cousin of the Vega-Robles brothers remains at large, with an outstanding arrest warrant in the killing.
After he became a state’s witness, Sergio Vega-Robles described Saul Vega-Robles as a lowlevel drug dealer who had been instructed to give Carrazco-Chavez $20,000 to settle a drug debt owed by Jose Vega-Robles, records show.
He also gave authorities information implicating Phillips and Jose Vega-Robles in Grockett’s murder.
Sergio Vega-Robles, who testified against Phillips last year, still has a pending case for conspiracy to murder.
Phillips was also convicted last year of soliciting the murder of the attorney for Sergio Vega-Robles, who negotiated a plea deal in which Vega-Robles agreed to testify. Police say Phillips asked a prison gang member named Jason Soletti — who has attacked prison guards, stabbed a man with a pen in a courtroom, and attacked a nurse at the Napa State Hospital — to kill the attorney during a face-to-face meeting, but the hit never took place.
Phillips has adamantly denied those allegations, and later this month a judge will rule whether to dismiss that conviction on a technicality.
The case had another twist: After Sergio VegaRobles was arrested, he told authorities he was bribing a Richmond policeman, Sgt. Michael Wang, who was part of an anti-drug task force in West Contra Costa County.
Wang, Vega-Robles said, provided him with kickbacks in exchange for information on rival drug dealers, and took bribes to not arrest Vega-Robles.
Wang’s attorney Harry Stern denied the accusations against his client at the time.
Another co-conspirator in the 2005 drug case, Anthony “Peanut” Hollingsworth, gave sworn testimony as a surprise defense witness in Phillips’ murder case that took those allegations a step further; he said Wang had directed him to sell cocaine in Richmond, told him he wouldn’t be arrested so long as he limited his selling to Richmond, and described Sergio VegaRobles as Wang’s partner in the drug business.
Vega-Robles said Wang also gave him information about a police informant, who was later shot — allegedly by Jose Vega-Robles — and who was awarded a $700,000 settlement in a subsequent lawsuit against Richmond police.
The shakeup led to a number of conspiracy charges being dismissed against Jose Vega-Robles and Phillips.
Vega-Robles’ attorney has filed not-yet-ruled-upon motions for a new trial saying authorities have failed to disclose relevant information related to Wang.
Richmond police fired Wang, and opened an internal affairs investigation into his conduct that was active as late as May 2014, according to court records. He has never been charged with a crime. Contra Costa prosecutor Tom Kensock said there were “statute of limitations issues” when asked why, but wouldn’t elaborate.