Police: Guerneville man suspected of major heroin sales

A 10-month investigation into a major heroin distribution network in Sonoma County culminated this week with the arrest of a former Guerneville man as he drove from Mexico to the Bay Area with about 2 kilograms of heroin worth an estimated $70,000 in the car, Santa Rosa police officials said.

Police suspect that Gage Wynne, 22, was selling large quantities of heroin to dealers throughout Sonoma County, at times making what appeared to be bulk drug deals from a rented property outside Guerneville where he lived until earlier this year, Sgt. Rich Celli said.

Celli said the arrest is a significant boost in the Police Department’s attempt to get at a top-tier source for heroin, a drug that has surged in popularity over the past five years alongside the rise of prescription opiate abuse, with devastating effects for some families.

In Sonoma County, nine men and three women - all Caucasians and half of them in their 20s - died from heroin overdoses in the past 12 months, according to Sonoma County Coroner’s Office records.

“We definitely disrupted this group,” Celli said, referring to a network of people who police suspect were linked to Wynne. “It is going to be harder to find this drug in Sonoma County.”

On Saturday, with the help of Livermore police, Santa Rosa detectives intercepted Wynne on the Altamont Pass as he drove toward the Bay Area, pulling him over on Interstate 580 and finding the heroin hidden in a secret dashboard compartment, Celli said.

Wynne appeared in an Alameda County courtroom Wednesday on two felony drug charges: possession of heroin for sale and transportation of a controlled substance. The judge increased bail from $40,000 to $540,000, records show.

Detectives still were pulling together all they have learned from the investigation into a report outlining a conspiracy case against Wynne involving suspected heroin distribution, Celli said. They will hand that investigation to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office to consider filing additional charges against Wynne and suspected co-conspirators as well.

The investigation began in September 2014 when detectives started hearing Wynne’s name come up during routine encounters with heroin users and small-time dealers in Santa Rosa, the sergeant said.

“We kept hearing about heroin in Guerneville,” Celli said.

For several months, surveillance teams tracked Wynne and a handful of associates. Detectives observed Wynne conducting suspected heroin sales at a 40-acre property he rents on Sweetwater Springs Road, Celli said. The investigation expanded, with police tracking him and others and observing apparent drug sales in Alameda, San Francisco and San Mateo counties, according to Celli.

Police suspect Wynne was selling multiple-ounce quantities of heroin that was a higher quality not commonly seen in the area before, and different from the cheaper and more common black tar heroin, Celli said.

The sergeant estimated the heroin was worth about $1,600 to $1,800 per ounce. A common dosage amount is about one-tenth of a gram.

Detectives observing the 22-year-old noted that he lived an expensive lifestyle with dinners at high-end restaurants and trips to Las Vegas, according to Celli.

They linked Wynne to several “stash houses” throughout the region, including the Alameda apartment of a co-conspirator’s unsuspecting grandmother and Wynne’s mother’s home in Menlo Park, Celli said.

Earlier this year, Wynne left his Sweetwater Springs Road home to live with his mother in San Mateo because, according to police, Wynne feared being arrested in connection with an unrelated case, Celli said. Police suspect he continued running operations at that property, including what they later found to be a hash oil lab and a 400-plant outdoor marijuana garden.

The sergeant said Wynne’s connection to Sonoma County didn’t end. Local heroin users followed Wynne’s network as it moved to other parts of the Bay Area, making the drive south to buy it, according to Celli.

On Saturday, detectives learned that Wynne had crossed the border and visited Tijuana, and they began tracking his return.

Livermore police, at Santa Rosa’s request, stopped the car carrying Wynne; his mother, Barbara Loza; 26-year-old Henry Weiss of San Francisco; and Weiss’ girlfriend, all of whom had traveled to Mexico, Celli said.

Officers found five burrito-shaped bricks of heroin wrapped in plastic and black electrical tape hidden in a jerry-rigged compartment in the dashboard. Wynne, Loza and Weiss were arrested on suspicion of felony drug charges.

Detectives then launched a series of searches at properties in Guerneville, Forestville, Menlo Park, Alameda and San Francisco over the next several days.

At Loza’s Marsh Road home in Menlo Park, officers found $100,000 buried in different locations in the yard, including a stack in a chicken coop, as well as an AR-15 assault rifle and an SKS assault rifle in the garage and two handguns in a bedroom, Celli said.

At Weiss’ San Francisco residence on Foerster Street, police found 1 ounce of suspected cocaine, evidence of narcotics sales and prior heroin distribution, as well as a loaded handgun in a vehicle there, Celli said.

Several people were seen fleeing the 40-acre property outside Guerneville at 18990 Sweetwater Springs Road when officers arrived and discovered the hash oil lab and marijuana, Celli said.

Detectives suspect one of those people was Abraham Moran, 26, of Forestville, who later was arrested in downtown Forestville after a pursuit when Moran apparently ran from officers who arrived at a family member’s home on Van Keppel Road, Celli said. Police suspect Moran was involved in the hash oil and marijuana operation.

Although the investigation took police outside city limits and eventually beyond Sonoma County, Celli said the investigation was a priority for Santa Rosa police because they believed it would lead to a significant source of heroin for the city.

“This is one of the biggest heroin arrests we’ve made in the last few years,” Celli said.

Heroin use has been on the increase in Sonoma County since a surge began in 2011. By 2012, local law enforcement agencies, court officials and drug abuse counselors were reporting a surprising number of teens and young adults tangled up in ?heroin-related arrests and overdoses, as well as seeking drug-abuse help.

Their addiction problems often started with opiate-based prescription pills, but they’d switched to cheaper, easy-to-get heroin when the pills became harder to acquire and less potent. Heroin addiction is recognized as a nationwide epidemic, and news accounts and health surveys show heroin-related deaths have been on the rise.

The 12 people who died over the past 12 months came from all over Sonoma County, including four Santa Rosans, three from Rohnert Park, one each from Petaluma, Healdsburg, Bodega Bay and Windsor, and a 20-year-old woman listed as a transient, Sonoma County sheriff’s spokeswoman Sgt. Cecile Focha said. The oldest was a 64-year-old Santa Rosa man.

You can reach Staff Writer Randi Rossmann at 521-5412, randi.rossmann@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @rossmannreport. You can reach Staff Writer Julie Johnson at 521-5220, julie.johnson@pressdemocrat.com or on Twitter @jjpressdem.