Mexican authorities made international headlines last week with the arrest of Jose Antonio Medina, 35, whose alleged drug cartel is said to be responsible for the flow of thousands of pounds of heroin each year into the United States.

The arrest of the so-called “Heroin King” was based on a warrant filed by the Ventura County district attorney’s office late last year and evidence gathered during a three-year investigation by a county multiagency drug task force.

Ryan Wright, a deputy district attorney, said officials allege that Medina was the mastermind behind a multimillion-dollar drug ring that brought massive amounts of heroin and methamphetamine into numerous U.S. cities since at least 2007.

The district attorney’s office is working on extradition paperwork to bring Medina back to Ventura County to stand trial on a drug trafficking charge.

Local agencies worked with the U.S. Department of Justice to file for the extradition.

Wright said the process of bringing Medina to trial in the U.S. could take years, but he was confident Mexican officials will allow the extradition. Medina faces a maximum sentence of 29 years.

Medina will be tried in Ventura County because most of the evidence against him— namely numerous recorded phone conversations between him and local drug dealers— was collected by the county drug task force, according to District Attorney Greg Totten.

Local law enforcement officials gave details during a March 29 press conference in Ventura about the three-year investigation by a multiagency county drug task force that eventually led Mexican police to arrest Medina.

“It is the first time that local law enforcement has investigated and prosecuted a drug trafficking organization of this nature that is operating deep within the country of Mexico,” said Totten.

The D.A. lauded the investigative work done by the Ventura County Combined Agency Team, which includes deputies with the sheriff ’s department and officers from the Oxnard Police Department.

“They were tireless in a very, very complex, deeply entrenched drug distribution organization,” Totten said.

The task force used both wiretaps and surveillance, Totten said, to build a case against Medina that began locally at the street level and eventually made its way across the U.S. border into Mexico.

Wright said the investigation began in 2007 as the county drug task force focused on Salvador Alvarez, an Oxnard man who they believed was receiving large amounts of heroin brought in from Mexico, distributing the drugs throughout California and then funneling millions of dollars back to a drug cartel in the western Mexican state of Michoacan.

In 2008, the investigation led to the largest heroin bust in Ventura County history and the arrests of Alvarez and Julio Ramirez Sr. of Downey.

Between December 2007 and February 2008, police seized 28 pounds of methamphetamine, 131 pounds of heroin and more than $215,000 in cash from seven homes in Ventura, Kern and Los Angeles counties.

Both men were found guilty. Alvarez is in prison, and Ramirez awaits sentencing.

Wright said the investigation has also led to the arrest of “dozens” of low-level street dealers.

During the investigation, police reportedly recorded phone calls from Medina in Mexico to Alvarez and Ramirez in the U.S. detailing how the drugs were to be divided and sold.

“(Medina) gave very detailed instructions regarding how to package, divide and distribute heroin to destinations all up and down California, from as far north as San Jose into San Diego and Orange County,” Wright said.

At the time detectives only knew Medina as “Don Pepe,” Wright said, and didn’t know his true identity.

“At that point in time, the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) then began to work with Mexican officials to identify Don Pepe, based on information gathered from wiretaps,” Wright said. “Combined with the fantastic cooperation from the Mexican government, I was presented enough information to present a criminal complaint against (Medina).”

Wright wouldn’t comment on how Mexican police were able to arrest Medina. He said Medina was taken into custody without incident.

Michoacan is the home base for La Familia, a drug cartel that has been linked to hundreds of drug-related killings in recent years.

Wright said investigators don’t believe Medina was a high-ranking member of La Familia, but that he had permission from the cartel to sell heroin.

Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks said his department is prepared to handle the security risks posed by holding Medina before and during his trial.

“We’ve dealt with high-profile cases before. We have contingency plans for those,” Brooks said. “Both in terms of incarceration and security in the courts, we’re more than comfortable that we can handle this.”