Cocaine making resurgence in South Tahoe

By Kathryn Reed

Watching the suspect make his deliveries around South Lake Tahoe, his clientele runs the gamut of residents from moms to construction workers to the seedier elements of town to cooks.

“This guy had established a little network,” Jeff Catchings, commander with South Lake El Dorado Narcotics Enforcement Team, told Lake Tahoe News. “There was no shortage of people waiting to buy from him.”

He is talking about Isidro Roberto Rojas Guzman, 44, of South Lake Tahoe. He was booked into El Dorado County Jail in South Tahoe last week on charges of selling cocaine.

“The amount of cocaine was significant. He probably just got a kilo and was down to 10 ounces or so. He had broken it in grams, eight balls and ounces,” Catchings said.

Although this is Guzman’s first arrest in the city, he has prior arrests for sales of narcotics in other California cities and in Nevada, Catchings said. His family is well known to law enforcement in the area. They get arrested and deported.

“For whatever reason they keep coming back to Tahoe,” Catchings said of the family.

In the 1980s, cocaine was the drug of choice in Tahoe for people selling and using. It’s gaining in popularity again as the price drops below what meth can be bought for on the street.

Catchings said consumption is a big deal locally. When it comes to SLEDNET officers seizing narcotics “cocaine is the highest numbers-wise.”