Drug-Selling Butcher Sentenced to Jail
Isidro Vasquez Admitted to Doling Out Dope During School Hours
A butcher arrested for selling drugs out of the Chapala Market on Milpas Street was sentenced Tuesday morning to one year in County Jail and five years of probation.
Isidro Vasquez pleaded to a charge of selling, transporting, or offering to sell a controlled substance, with a special allegation of the sale of drugs near a school, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Mary Barron. Vasquez is allowed to apply for electronic monitoring and will be able to hold onto his license. He lost his job as a butcher and is suspended from a janitorial job in Ventura, his attorney said.
According to authorities, detectives had been investigating reports that drugs were being sold out of the market at 605 North Milpas Street. Eventually, detectives served a search warrant at the Santa Paula home of Vasquez and turned up 12.7 grams of cocaine and two guns. The same day, on March 27, Vasquez was stopped on his drive to work, and police detectives found packages of methamphetamine and cocaine in his vehicle. Police said Vasquez admitted to selling drugs out of the Chapala Market during school hours and that he had accepted property in exchange for drugs.
Another butcher, Artemio Ortega, was arrested for allegedly being under the influence of drugs the same day as Vasquez. His case was ultimately dismissed. The owner of the market was not implicated in the drug sales, according to police.
