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Over the next four weeks, 18 local residents will be sitting in Pima County Superior Court listening to secretly taped telephone conversations prosecutors say show the inner workings of one of the county's largest-ever drug-trafficking rings.

Opening statements were heard Thursday in the trial of David Sosa-Hernandez, Vicente Murrieta Melendez, Ricardo H. Varela and Sylvester Alfonso Mitchell, who were indicted four years ago after an investigation by the Counter Narcotics Alliance.

Sosa-Hernandez, along with his aunt, Maria Isabel Dominguez, identified sources of marijuana in Mexico and then brokered deals between those sources and Jamaican drug traffickers, Deputy Pima County Attorney Richard Wintory told jurors.

Melendez is alleged to be a member of the Dominguez organization, Varela is accused of being a supplier and Mitchell is suspected of transporting or selling the drug.

The four defendants were indicted along with 31 others in August 2004 on money-laundering, conspiracy and drug charges that were based on secretly recorded telephone conversations. Members of the Counter Narcotics Alliance spent months monitoring three of Maria Isabel Dominguez's telephone lines.

Pima County sheriff's Deputy Guadalupe Dominguez testified that the alliance began investigating Maria Isabel Dominguez after he obtained a tip from a person he'd arrested. During the investigation, he learned the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration was also investigating the Dominguez organization and the two organizations teamed up.

The group began tapping Maria Isabel Dominguez's phone lines on June 10, 2004, and listened to thousands of calls over the next 60 days, Guadalupe Dominguez said.

During their opening statements, defense attorneys Stephanie Meade, Matilde Slate, David Valadez and James Fullin urged jurors to keep an open mind and to make Wintory prove his case "beyond a reasonable doubt."

The case is all about perceptions, Meade said.

Fullin also asked jurors to carefully weigh each witness's credibility; many of those testifying entered into deals with the Pima County Attorney's Office.

Maria Isabel Dominguez had been scheduled to go to trial along with the four, but she pleaded guilty to money-laundering earlier this week and agreed to serve 18 years in prison.

Last month, local attorney Hector Montoya also entered a deal with prosecutors. Montoya admitted he became aware Maria Isabel Dominguez was involved in drug-related activities, he accepted clients referred by her, and he advised Dominguez to be "careful and cautious" upon learning she was being targeted by law-enforcement agencies.

Montoya also acknowledged that he advised Dominguez to have people at a home she controlled engage in legitimate activity to mislead investigators, knowing a law-enforcement camera was monitoring the house.

In addition, Montoya admitted he accepted a $20,000 fee to represent a client referred to him by Dominguez, despite knowing he was helping Dominguez launder drug money.

Sosa-Hernandez and Mitchell are being tried in absentia because both are fugitives with warrants out for their arrest.