Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jan 2002
Source: Daily News of Los Angeles (CA)
Copyright: 2002 Daily News of Los Angeles
Contact: http://www.DailyNews.com/contact/letters.asp
Website: http://www.DailyNews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/246
Author: Troy Anderson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

UNDERCOVER OPERATION FINDS DEALERS IN SCHOOLS

Undercover LAPD officers purchased narcotics 227 times and arrested 136 
dealers in Los Angeles public schools during a yearlong sting, Chief 
Bernard C. Parks said Friday.

The undercover officers who posed as students said Friday they were shocked 
to discover that youths openly sold drugs inside classrooms and used drugs 
throughout school campuses.

"As far as narcotics go, it's pretty bad," said Los Angeles Police 
Department Officer Jason Azpeitia, 26. "You walk into a restroom and see 
two to three kids smoking out in a stall from a marijuana pipe or joint.

"You go to little hidden spots on campus and they are smoking out or using 
drugs. I thought it was pretty bad the way high school kids are using 
narcotics now days. It's everybody using narcotics."

Officer San Miguel Arana, 26, said most of the classrooms are very crowded 
and only have one instructor, so it's easy for dealers to sell drugs in class.

"Out of the percentage of students I busted, about 40 percent of the 
transactions occurred in the classroom," Arana said. "When an instructor is 
teaching a course, you'd be in the back making a transaction."

Since 1974, undercover officers in the LAPD School Investigation Buy Unit 
have made thousands of narcotic purchases and arrested more than 8,400 drug 
dealers on campuses, seizing $8 million in narcotics.

 From Jan. 2 to Dec. 14 last year, undercover officers made 227 narcotic 
purchases from 162 different dealers and arrested 136 of those dealers.

Police are working to apprehend the remaining 26 dealers, among them both 
students and nonstudents.

Police declined to say at what schools the arrests took place, but said 
campuses in the San Fernando Valley were involved.

"Most of the dealers operated freely in select high schools and would not 
have been discovered through other types of police investigations," Parks said.

Marijuana remains the most prevalent drug among high school students. 
However, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, methamphetamine, hallucinogenic mushrooms, 
and prescription drugs like Adderall and Vicodin were also purchased by 
undercover officers.

As a result of the notoriety of the program, LAPD Juvenile Division Capt. 
Charlie Beck said it's much more difficult for students to buy drugs on 
campus now than it was when the program started in 1974.

Willie Crittendon, LAUSD director of secondary education and support 
services, said the district has a tremendous partnership with the Police 
Department.

"This program has been a tremendous deterrent in ridding drugs from our 
campuses," he said. "We hope to continue this partnership with the LAPD 
and, hopefully, do a much better job of getting rid of drugs on our streets 
and in our campuses."

LAPD Officer Dolores Martinez, 25, said she began her one-semester 
assignment by driving by the school and noticing the type of clothes youths 
were wearing.

"You see what kids are wearing and stuff and go out and buy some little 
teeny-bopper clothes and do your best," she said. "You have to act as a 
child -- at their level. Honestly, I would come back after school and pop a 
bottle of Advil just from the headache from being in class."

Once as part of an investigation, Martinez followed some youths between 
classes and got in trouble with school officials.

"I never ditched when I was in school, honest. I was trying to catch these 
kids in between periods, and I got caught. I got sent to a room where they 
send all the kids.

"It cost me overtime for detention," Beck joked.

Arana said he never used the drugs youths offered him.

"It's a facade we play," he said. "It's part of our training. We just talk 
our way out of it. These kids, if you give them an excuse, will believe it."
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