SFPD, DEA investigation leads to more than 20 arrests

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A major joint federal drug bust involving the DEA and San Francisco police that lead to more than a dozen arrests was revealed Tuesday when the criminal complaint was unsealed.

Sources with knowledge of the investigation tell ABC7 News this started as a routine operation by the joint drug task force and then led to something much bigger - street level drug dealers with ties to the Columbian cartel.

One of the target locations investigators searched was on Santa Barbara Avenue in Daly City just across the street from Woodrow Wilson Elementary School.

According to the criminal complaint unsealed today, the DEA has been investigating the Lopez-Galindo brothers, Felix and Pedro, since November of 2016. They go by the street names Fanta and Zorro. The complaint alleges they were involved in a drug trafficking organization distributing large quantities of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in California and other states.

In addition to the Daly City address investigators also served search warrants at target locations on Kirkwood Avenue and Chestnut Avenue in San Francisco.

ABC7 News was previously embedded with the multi agency task force in the Tenderloin in 2013 as investigators arrested other drug dealers who set up shop near schools.

According to the nearly 50 page complaint co-conspirators also included the Galindo brothers' girlfriends who were also arrested.