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COLTON -- Authorities jailed a Whittier man and a Mexican man Thursday after they met undercover investigators with more than 40 pounds of cocaine, officials announced Friday.
Jose Vega Diaz, 47, of Whittier, and Juan More Flores, 40, of Tecate, Mexico, were being held in lieu of $1 million each at the Riverside County Jail, California Attorney General's officials said in a written statement.
The seized drugs are valued at $1.85 million, officials said.
Department of Justice Special Agents made the bust as part of an ongoing crackdown against a Baja California-based drug cartel that distributed cocaine throughout Southern California, according to the Attorney General's Office.
"Working with a confidential informant, an undercover agent arranged to purchase cocaine from an individual associated with (the cartel)," the statement said. "At a prearranged meeting in a hotel parking lot in Colton, agents arrested (Diaz and Flores) and seized 18.5 kilos of cocaine."

From the Associated Press:

LOS ANGELES -- Authorities say a 70-year-old Claremont woman and her son are among four people indicted for money laundering as part of a narcotics scheme to send a powerful and often-abused cough syrup from California to Texas, where it was sold for the street concoction "purple drank."
The U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement that Lucita Uy of has been indicted for buying three pharmacies so she could purchase more than 97,000 pints of Promethazine for the wholesale price of about $9.
On the streets of Houston, where the drug is especially popular, the same bottle can go for as much as $600.
Uy and her son, Lemuel Libano, have pleaded not guilty to two money laundering charges apiece and are scheduled to start trial Nov. 29.

From the Associated Press:

MEXICO CITY -- Suspected drug traffickers dumped 35 bodies at rush hour beneath a busy overpass in the heart of a major Gulf coast city as gunmen pointed weapons at frightened drivers. Mexican authorities said Wednesday they are examining surveillance video for clues to who committed the crime.
Horrified motorists grabbed cell phones and sent Twitter messages warning others to avoid the area near the biggest shopping mall in Boca del Rio, part of the metropolitan area of Veracruz city.
The gruesome gesture marked a sharp escalation in cartel violence in Veracruz state, which sits on an important route for drugs and Central American migrants heading north.
The Zetas drug cartel has been battling other gangs for control of the state.
Prosecutors said it's too soon to draw conclusions from the surveillance video.
"We're not going to confirm or deny anything," Veracruz state Attorney General Reynaldo Escobar Perez told the Televisa network Wednesday. "We're looking at it in
different ways, we're seeing different numbers, that's why we don't want to get ahead of ourselves."
Escobar said the bodies were left piled in two trucks and on the ground under the overpass near the statue of the Voladores de Papantla, ritual dancers from Veracruz
state. He said some of the victims had their heads covered with black plastic bags and showed signs of torture.
Among the bodies was a local police officer who had gone missing two weeks ago, Escobar told W Radio in Mexico City. He told MVS Radio many of the victims were
strangled, some bled to death and one person had been shot dead.
Escobar did not return phone calls from The Associated Press.
Police have identified 32 of the victims so far and maintain they all had criminal records for acts such as murder, drug dealing, kidnapping and extortion and were
linked to organized crime, said Magda Zayas, spokeswoman for the Veracruz Attorney General's Office.
State Gov. Javier Duarte said on his Twitter account "the killing of 35 people is deplorable, but it's even more deplorable the same victims chose to extort, kidnap and kill."
Duarte said an intelligence database shows the 35 victims had a criminal background.
Motorists posted Twitter warnings said the masked gunmen were in military uniforms and were blocking Manuel Avila Camacho Boulevard.
"They don't seem to be soldiers or police," one tweet read. Another said, "Don't go through that area, there is danger."
Veracruz is currently hosting a conference of Mexico's top state and federal prosecutors and judiciary officials.
Local media said that 12 of the victims were women and that some of the dead men had been among prisoners who escaped from three Veracruz prisons on Monday, but Escobar
denied the escaped convicts were among the dead.
At least 32 inmates got away from the three Veracruz prisons. Police recaptured 14 of them.
Drug violence has claimed more than 35,000 lives across Mexico since 2006, according to government figures. Others put the number at more than 40,000.

ALTADENA - Sheriff's deputies FBI agents raided a home in Altadena Thursday in search of drugs, authorities said.
An FBI SWAT team detonated flash-bang grenades about 5:30 p.m. Thursday as they forced their way into a home at El Sereno Avenue and Woodbury Road, officials said.
The FBI and sheriff's deputies teamed up to serve a narcotics search warrant at the home, which is believed to be a hangout for Pasadena Denver Lanes gang members, Capt. Steve McLean said.
Officials found "a small amount" of crack cocaine inside a bedroom of the home, he said.
More than 20 people were detained and questioned following the raid, Sgt. Joseph Fender said.
One man was arrested because of an outstanding arrest warrant, he said, and another was cited for possession of marijuana.
The investigation was ongoing.
A simultaneous narcotics search warrant was served at a home in the 200 block of Douglas Street in Pasadena, however no information regarding that raid was available Friday.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Two men, including one from Hacienda Heights and one from Downey, linked by authorities to an unspecified Mexican drug cartel and charged in one of the state's largest-ever drug busts have been indicted in federal court.

Armando Saucedo, of Hacienda Heights, and Andrew Rios, of Downey, were indicted Wednesday on conspiracy and drug and gun possession charges. A third man, Adilson Reyes, of South Ogden, Utah, has already been charged and pleaded not guilty. The court earlier entered not guilty pleas on Rios' and Saucedo's behalf.

The men were arrested in January with over $1.2 million and $6.6 million worth of cocaine. An arresting agent's affidavit says that at the time of his arrest, Reyes admitted he drove large shipments of cocaine from California to Rhode Island.

Lawyers for the men didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.

From the Associated Press:

ACAPULCO, Mexico  - Police found the bodies of 15 slain men, 14 of them headless, on a street outside a shopping center in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Saturday.
The victims, all of whom appeared to be in their 20s, were discovered in an area not frequented by tourists.
Handwritten signs left with the bodies were signed by "El Chapo's People"--a reference to the Sinaloa cartel, headed by drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman--said Fernando Monreal Leyva, director of investigative police for Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located.
The narco-messages indicated the Sinaloa cartel killed them for trying to intrude on the gang's turf and extort residents.
Mexico's drug cartels have increasingly taken to beheading their victims in a grisly show of force, but Saturday's discovery was the largest single group of decapitation victims found in recent years.
In 2008, a group of 12 decapitated bodies were piled outside the Yucatan state capital of Merida. The same year, 9 headless men were discovered in the Guerrero state capital of Chilpancingo.
Acapulco has been the site of fierce battles between drug gangs, and this weekend got off to a bloody start with 27 people killed there from Friday evening to early Saturday, Leyva said.
The dead included two police officers cut down on a main bayside avenue in front of tourists and locals; six people who were shot dead and stuffed in a taxi, their hands and feet bound; and four others elsewhere in the city.
"We are coordinating with federal forces and local police to reinforce security in Acapulco and investigating to try to establish the motive and perpetrators of these incidents," Monreal said.
At least 30,196 people have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an offensive against cartels in late 2006.
Also Saturday, authorities said a small-town mayor was found dead in northern Mexico.
Saul Vara Rivera, mayor of the municipality of Zaragoza, was reported missing by family members Wednesday, Coahuila state prosecutors said in a statement. His bullet-ridden body was discovered Friday in neighboring Nuevo Leon state.
There were no immediate arrests.
At least a dozen mayors were killed nationwide last year in acts of intimidation attributed to drug gangs.

"America's Got Talent" audition, ecstasy, speed, a missing woman and the arrest of a rock musician. This story has some interesting twists:

Los Angeles police said Tuesday the wife of a man vying for a spot on "America's Got Talent" was found dead in the stairwell of an upscale hotel where the T.V. show was holding auditions.

Covina native Laura Finley, 48, was discovered about 8:30 a.m. Saturday morning by a guest of the Millennium Biltmore Hotel.

Police said her death appeared to be accidental, but they are looking into "other possibilities" as a precaution, Los Angeles Police Lt. Paul Vernon said.

The coroner's office is waiting for the results of toxicology tests before determining Laura Finley's cause of death, Los Angeles County Department of Coroner Lt. Fred Corral said.

Laura Finley grew up in Covina and married her high school sweet heart, Joe Finley, four years after graduating from Northview High School in 1980, said Laura Finley's sister, Jill Sutterlin.

"My sister loved her husband more than she loved her children and herself," Sutterlin said. "She was his number one fan."

Joe Finley called hotel security and reported his wife missing after he got out of bed Saturday, Vernon said.

The 47-year-old rock musician then attended an audition for the NBC reality T.V. show, Vernon said. Police later notified him about the death of his wife.

Joe Finley was arrested early Sunday on suspicion of drug possession, Vernon said.

During an interview with detectives, Joe Finley said he and his wife had consumed ecstasy before her death, Vernon said.