A months-long targeted police surveillance operation in a Bella Vista neighborhood has concluded with the arrest of a 40-year-old local man on major drug trafficking charges, law enforcement officials confirmed this week. Roman Gamboa was taken into custody on Thursday after officers caught him in the act of burying packages of suspected crack cocaine in an undeveloped open lot, an area that had been monitored closely by authorities in the wake of a sharp spike in drug-linked violent crime throughout 2025.
Assistant Superintendent of Police Stacy Smith, the lead officer on the operation, detailed that plainclothes surveillance personnel first spotted Gamboa digging in the lot’s soil, prompting tactical units to move in to make an arrest. As officers closed the distance on the suspect, he attempted to slip away and discarded a sealed plastic bag he had been holding.
Law enforcement quickly recovered the discarded bag, which investigators found held 15 individually wrapped aluminum foil parcels, each containing a quantity of suspected crack cocaine. Once Gamboa was detained, officers escorted him back to the digging site to conduct a systematic search of the surrounding area. Roughly 10 feet from where Gamboa had been working, officers uncovered a second cache of 15 additional foil-wrapped parcels that had already been buried underground.
Forensic testing preliminary results put the total seized crack cocaine at just over 6.36 grams: 2.92 grams from the discarded bag, and 3.44 grams from the buried cache. Gamboa now faces two separate felony counts of possession of a controlled dangerous substance with intent to distribute, a charge that carries significant criminal penalties under local narcotics laws. The ongoing investigation is expected to lead to additional questioning of potential associates connected to the local drug trade operating in the Bella Vista area, officials added.