Police: Large cocaine supplier to Kosciusko and Elkhart counties arrested

Police in Kosciusko and Elkhart counties have arrested a man accused of being a large supplier of cocaine in the area, the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department says in a news release. Police arrested Jose Villa Jr., 19, about 11 p.m. Wednesday at the Whispering Pines Trailer Court in Warsaw. He has been charged preliminarily with felony dealing cocaine. His bond was preliminarily set at $20,000 Thursday morning. Kosciusko County Sheriff Rocky Goshert says that during the investigation, Villa was found to be in the United States illegally. He said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have been contacted. On Wednesday night, Elkhart County Drug Task Force and Interdiction and Covert Enforcement Unit members arrested a Hispanic male in the city of Elkhart and accused him of dealing cocaine. The subject provided Elkhart officers with the location of the supplied cocaine, in Kosciusko County. Kosciusko and Elkhart County Drug Task Force officers then found Villa, whom police say gave the officers consent to search his mobile home. Eleven individual bags of cocaine were located. The cocaine’s total weight is about 1 pound and has a street value of at least $10,000, police say.