Rodarte’s team was part of a multi-agency operation that served 20 search warrants Wednesday on what Yuba County District Attorney Clint Curry described as members of a transnational drug trafficking organization. Curry said the warrants were the culmination of a multi-year investigation into trafficking of methamphetamine, heroin, and fentanyl.
Officer Rodarte’s team served a warrant on a house in Olivehurst and made entry around 7:50 a.m. Inside, they exchanged fire with a suspect and Rodarte was critically wounded. He died at a local hospital, Yuba County Sheriff Wendell Anderson said at a Wednesday afternoon press conference.
Officials said the suspect was also killed in the gunfight, and another person in the house was detained as a witness.
Investigators from NET-5, the multiagency Yuba-Sutter Narcotics and Gang Task Force Unit, were leading the prolonged operation that targeted dozens of suspected dealers and netted fentanyl, hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and weapons, the
Sacramento Bee
reports.
DA Curry said the number of arrests and other information would be released later this week.