JOHNSTON — The mysterious daylight murder killing of two men two years ago dropped a major assignment onto the desks of the town’s detectives squad.

Other than the men’s alleged involvement in drug trafficking, investigators had little hard information to help them. They had no gun, no fingerprints, no bullet casings and no eyewitnesses.

But a little more than two years later, the case is solved.

On Friday, James C. Whitley, a West Warwick man who accompanied the suspected shooter to the scene, pleaded no contest to a pair of second-degree murder charges. The suspected triggerman, Tonea A. “Nutt” Sims, was killed in December.

“This could have wound up on the shelf somewhere,” Police Chief Richard S. Tamburini said. “But those guys didn’t let up.”

“These detectives took it step by step,” he said.

The ghastly murders of Benito Vizcaino, 52, and Jose Luis Aburto Sanchez, 32, took place on July 16, 2004, in a Starr Street auto salvage facility.

Locally, it was unprecedented — taking place in the daytime — and upsetting, according to Tamburini.

“This impacted on every citizen in Johnston,” Tamburini said.

“It was something that’s never happened in Johnston. “We were bound and determined to do something about it.”

The department’s investigation led Johnston investigators into a netherworld of drug trafficking.

Both victims had recently visited Georgia and traveled to Rhode Island with 10 kilos of cocaine, according to police Major Ralph J. Bubar III.

In interviews with family and friends, Johnston Detectives Alan Ross and Albert Faella learned about the trip and Vizcaino’s contention that he had recently lost $174,000 in cash at a drug deal.

During the first three months of the investigation, the police logged $22,300 in overtime.

They also developed some close contacts with agents of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives.

Federal agents were already tracking Whitley and Sims for other reasons.

After Sims was gunned down, a woman who had been in a relationship with him told detectives that he had killed two men in the summer of 2004, according to Bubar.

A joint investigation of phone records amassed hundreds of contacts and eventually tied Sims to Whitley and Whitley to the two victims.

Then, in March of this year, the police and federal agents arrested Whitley on weapons charges.

The suspect implicated himself further when he tried to pin the murders on Sims, Bubar said.

“Cooperation between law enforcement agencies is essential to criminal investigation,” said the resident agent-in-charge of ATF’s Providence field office, Thomas H. Wlodyka. “This case is a prime example.…”