Two Humboldt County jail inmates were saved by correctional officers after suspected opioid overdoses, the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office announced in a press release today. On Monday night, correctional officers administered Naloxone, a nasal spray commonly used to counter decreased breathing caused by an opioid overdose, to two female inmates housed in the same cell […]
heroin
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Drug Task Force Reports Seizing 5 Pounds of Heroin
The Humboldt County Drug Task Force reported seizing nearly 5 pound of suspected heroin while seeing a search warrant yesterday, according to a press release. The warrant, served in the 500 block of Warren Creek Road, was targeting Jack Ryan Skundrich, 34, who is well known to the task force. According to the press release, […]
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Drug Task Force Seizes 5 Pounds of Suspected Heroin
Around 5:15 p.m., the Humboldt County Drug Task Force pulled over a vehicle near the onramp to U.S. Highway 101 from the Miranda bridge. According to Humboldt County Sheriff Sgt. Jesse Taylor, the vehicle contained about 5 pounds of heroin. Taylor responded to our request for information in an email reply, saying, “I can confirm […]
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Third Wave
In 2013, what’s become known as the third wave of the national opioid epidemic began to wash over the United States. But fueled by the opioid fentanyl, for years it didn’t hit Humboldt County, leaving residents and officials to read about its devastating impacts elsewhere as it came to dominate national overdose rates. Then in […]
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Four Pounds of Heroin Seized by Humboldt County Drug Task Force
The Humboldt County Drug Task Force apprehended 4 pounds of “suspected heroin packaged for sale” during a traffic stop last week in Southern Humboldt. Jessie Kate Hawk, 38, and David Eugene Couch, 62, were identified as suspects and detained. The two were stopped on U.S. Highway 101 near Miranda after agent were able to secure […]
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Eureka, County Are Parties in Opioid Settlement Agreement
Eureka and Humboldt County are parties to the tentative multi-billion-dollar settlement reached this week in a landmark lawsuit brought by thousands of municipal governments and more than two dozen states against Purdue Pharma, the company that created OxyContin. The settlement — which still needs to be ratified by plaintiffs and approved by the judge — […]
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Rico’s Tacos Loses Liquor Licenses after August Cocaine Bust
The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has revoked an Arcata taco shop’s liquor license, effective immediately. According to a press release, Rico’s Tacos Taqueria has not contested the revocation, which comes about six months after its owner Ariel Arguellas-Sosa was arrested on suspicion of possession and sales of cocaine and methamphetamine. Agents with the […]
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Drug Task Force Record Streak Continues with Loleta Bust
The Humboldt County Drug Task Force continued its record streak Sunday with the seizure of 12 pounds of heroin stashed in a hidden compartment during a traffic stop in Loleta — believed to be the largest one-stop confiscation in the county’s history. Two men — Carlos Cota-Alonso and Edgar Barragan-Castano — from Sonora, Mexico, were […]
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Task Force Finds 6 Pounds of Heroin in Bust
The Humboldt County Drug Task Force is continuing its record string of heroin seizures. The task force reported this morning that agents served a search warrant at a residence in the 500 block of Warren Creek Road in Arcata and located approximately 6 pounds of suspected heroin, as well as $6,000 in cash believed to […]
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As Heroin Addiction Increases, Humboldt Sees a Surge in Drug Seizures
Just three drug busts between August and November — including one of the largest in recent history — helped push the amount of heroin seized by the Humboldt County Drug Task Force in 2018 into the record books. Over the course of last year, the multi-agency investigative team recovered nearly 35 pounds of the drug […]
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Drug Task Force Seizes 9 Pounds of Heroin
The Humboldt County Drug Task Force announced this afternoon that it has arrested three Mexican nationals in what it believes to be the largest heroin seizure in recent county history. In the culmination of a year-long investigation, agents arrested Carlos Sanchez-Gallego, 63, of Mexicali, Mexico, after a search of his vehicle in Eureka discovered nearly […]
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‘Catch Me If You Can!!’
It was shortly after noon on April 7, 2010 and Eureka’s Problem Oriented Policing team was staking out room 103 at the Comfort Inn, a mustard-colored hotel on South Broadway with rooms that go for about $80 a night. The officers had been part of a task force that spent the prior afternoon canvassing Eureka […]