Israel Alamillo (R) and Maria De Luz Lopez (R)
WATSONVILLE — A local couple spent the night in jail after being arrested on several charges, including child endangerment and manufacture of a controlled substance, at their apartment complex on Holohan Road in Watsonville.
Watsonville police, along with the Fire Department and American Medical Response personnel, were dispatched to 485 Holohan Road after reports of a fire on a balcony. The caller described the location of the fire and mentioned seeing the suspects arguing near it.
When response personnel arrived, they encountered an overwhelming amount of smoke coming from the balcony and the interior of the apartment. Residents were quickly evacuated.
There was a total of six occupants in the apartment — one 3-year-old child, two female teenagers (13 and 15), and three adults (19, 20, and 38). Over the course of the investigation, police learned that the suspects — 19-year-old Maria De Luz Lopez and 20-year-old Israel Alamillo — were in the process of manufacturing Butane Honey Oil (BHO). During the process, an explosion caused a fire on the balcony.
Police found an overwhelming amount of evidence which corroborated the manufacturing of BHO, and it turned out this wasn’t the couple’s first time doing so.
The 3-year-old who’d been in the apartment at the time of the explosion was taken to Watsonville Community Hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation.
Both Lopez and Alamillo were arrested and booked into the Santa Cruz County Jail for child endangerment and manufacturing of a controlled substance.
