Federal authorities arrest 18 people in Los Angeles park in drug crackdown

Federal authorities arrested 18 people in Los Angeles in a crackdown on drugs in MacArthur Park, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.

The DoJ said it was targeting an “open-air drug market” in the park near downtown, which has long struggled with fentanyl use and overdoses and has at times had large encampments of unhoused people.

A total of 25 people have been charged in federal court with possession with the intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance, according to the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Seven of those defendants have not been arrested and are considered fugitives, the DoJ said.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has been working with the Los Angeles police department and LA sheriff’s department since March on an investigation into the trafficking of controlled substances around MacArthur Park “for the purpose of identifying distributors, gathering evidence, and charging distributors”, according to a complaint in federal court.

Authorities conducted surveillance operations, and undercover officers and confidential informants also made drug purchases, the complaint said. The complaint alleges that two defendants, who are a couple, “serve as the, if not one of the main sources of supply of fentanyl powder and methamphetamine” in the area and were working on behalf of the 18th Street gang, an LA group.

The complaint said the couple “hand-deliver narcotics” to the “Alvarado corridor”, a strip by the park, “for stashing in the storefronts and subsequent distribution to street-level dealers”. The couple allegedly used their residence as a “stash location”, the complaint said. The charging documents did not provide specific documentation of their alleged gang affiliation.

Two other groups, the Crazy Riders Gang and MS-13, are also involved in the sourcing of drugs in the vicinity of MacArthur Park, according to the charges. Members of the gangs “rarely, if ever, are responsible for the actual sale of the user-quantities of drugs”, but distribute them to “runners” who sell them on the street, the complaint said.

US prosecutors’ 67-page complaint outlines officers’ monitoring of the defendants and their alleged drug purchases. There were allegedly 27 separate drug deals of fentanyl and methamphetamine from 9 March to 15 April in the area, the DoJ said. Law enforcement allegedly seized roughly 18kg (40lbs) of fentanyl from one defendant’s residence.