A police officer and a former officer from California have been charged with trying to distribute hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of marijuana in Virginia.
Alexandria police said 34-year-old Frederick Sayles, 38-year-old Gabriel Sepeda and 34-year-old David Flowers were arrested when they showed up to a drug transaction with 27 pounds of marijuana in their car. The drugs had a street value of about $635,000, authorities said.
Sayles is a police officer with the Selma Police Department in Selma, Calif., a small town near Fresno in central California. Sepeda is a former officer with that agency and all three men are from the Fresno area.
Police said Tuesday that authorities believe the three were planning to distribute the drugs in Virginia. They were arrested Thursday in the Tysons Corner area after they showed up with the car full of drugs.
“It was part of the buy bust,” said Jody Donaldson, an Alexandria police spokesman. The men were arrested by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, who were part of a task force investigating the narcotics operation with Alexandria police.
The men were in Northern Virginia as “part of the negotiations” to distribute the drugs, Donaldson.
The three are charged with conspiracy to import marijuana and conspiracy to distribute marijuana. Additional charges might be pending, police said.
