Authorities on Tuesday said they arrested nine people in connection with a drug trafficking network that transported a large amount of cocaine from Texas to Maryland, with drugs stashed in homes across the region, including in Southeast Baltimore City and in Baltimore County.

Benjamin Rivas Lopez, Santos Ayala Serrano, Brayan Juarez Cruz, Pablo Aberlardo Molina, Fredy Lopez Chinchilla, Gerson Tabora Chinchilla, Hamilton Eduardo Cha Pacay, German Aguilar Mencias and Elvin Ayala Paz have been charged with drug trafficking and related offenses. Their attorneys were not listed on online court records. The Maryland Office of Public Defender did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger said officials are still identifying others who may be connected to the network.

“Criminals know no boundaries, and neither should we,” Shellenberger said in a news conference.

Baltimore City State’s Attorney Ivan Bates said collaboration between local, state and federal agencies, including city and county police departments and the Drug Enforcement Administration‘s Baltimore office, was “crucial” in dismantling the network and restoring a “sense of safety and security within our communities.”

The investigation began in January of 2025, when narcotics officers with Baltimore County Police began looking into an “upper level drug trafficking organization” believed to be bringing large amounts of cocaine from Texas into Maryland, County Police Chief Robert McCullough said in the news conference.

Law enforcement officials believed the suspects were using homes across the region to stash cocaine, according to a news release from the Office of the State’s Attorney for Baltimore City, including an apartment in Southeast Baltimore and a house in Baltimore County.

Detectives obtained search-and-seizure warrants for the stash locations and suspects’ vehicles after learning that a new shipment of narcotics was going to arrive at the Baltimore apartment on Oct. 2, Bates said.

Police identified and tracked Molina and Lopez’s cars from Houston, Texas, to their arrival at the Southeast Baltimore apartment, according to the news release. Molina, Lopez, Cruz and Serrano carried “multiple large pieces of luggage” into the apartment, where detectives found 43 kilograms of cocaine — about 95 pounds — with an approximate street value of $4 million, police said.

Investigators also executed a search-and-seizure warrant on a home in Baltimore County and several cars, where they say they found about 360 grams of cocaine.

Cha Pacay, Aguilar Mencias, Tabora Chinchilla, Ayala Paz, Lopez Chinchilla and Juarez Cruz are facing charges in Baltimore County. Rivas Lopez, Ayala Serrano and Aberlardo Molina were indicted in Baltimore City.