Four Arrested in One of Santa Barbara’s Biggest Ever Drug Busts

Santa Barbara police made four arrests and seized 53 pounds of methamphetamine in one of the city’s largest ever drug busts, Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale said Tuesday. 

On May 27 at around 9:30 p.m., detectives who’d been investigating drug activity in the area served a search warrant near the 3700 block of State Street and stopped two vehicles. They detained 38-year-old Viviana Martinez-Perez of Bell Gardens; 25-year-old Rachel Delgado-Garcia of Los Angeles; 36-year-old Titan Nolet of Anaheim; and 31-year-old Natali Ontiveros, also of Anaheim. The detectives also located 53 pounds of methamphetamine, one ounce of fentanyl, and three semi-automatic handguns in the cars.

“Nolet was a wanted parolee out of Los Angeles County, and Ontiveros was on active probation,” Ragsdale said. “Ontiveros had recently rented a local hotel room in the 3500 block of State Street. … Detectives conducted a search of the room that yielded 11 ounces of heroin and other narcotics.”

The street value of the drugs was worth approximately $100,000, Ragsdale said. “These arrests and discovery of illegal narcotics resulted in one of the largest drug seizures, if not the largest, in the Santa Barbara Police Department’s history,” he said.

All four suspects were charged with multiple felonies and are being held on $1 million bail. 

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