Pair Arrested in Scheme to Sell Chunks of Drywall as Cocaine

A Sherman Oaks man and a partner were arrested Tuesday in San Clemente for allegedly trying to sell chunks of drywall disguised as $2.5 million worth of cocaine to undercover police officers.

Arcesop Espbar-Benitez, 31, and Nestor Martinez, 36, of Downey had been tracked for a month by police from San Clemente and El Monte and federal Drug Enforcement Administration officials from San Diego, said San Clemente police Sgt. Richard Downing.

In an attempt to fool undercover officers, who had arranged to buy 150 kilograms of cocaine from them, drywall boards were cut into 10-by-6-inch blocks and dusted with small amounts of cocaine, Downing said.

The men packed the drywall, which resembles hard-packed chalk, into the trunk of a new Mercedes-Benz and met undercover officers at a coin-operated carwash, Downing said.

“If they would have tried this switch with underworld drug dealers, the probably wouldn’t have lived,” he said.

The men were first arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine, then confessed to officers that the substance was phony, police said. They then were arrested on suspicion of “sale of a substance in lieu of a controlled substance.”