Pubdate: Fri, 05 May 2006
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2006 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Jonathan Abrams, Times Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

RAID TARGETS SKID ROW DRUGS

Police arrest eight for allegedly selling crack cocaine to homeless 
buyers paying with coins or even food vouchers.

Los Angeles police raided a hotel Thursday on the outskirts of 
Chinatown, arresting eight suspects in an alleged crack cocaine ring 
that provided a stark look at how even homeless people with only 
pennies to their name can fuel a burgeoning drug trade.

During the raid -- the first in the LAPD's new crackdown on the 
downtown homeless district's crime and drug problem -- officers 
reportedly discovered $130,000, including $700 in quarters, nickels, 
dimes and even pesos that they believe homeless people amassed by 
panhandling or stealing from parking meters. The money was used to 
buy small hits of crack cocaine, they said.

Also seized were government food voucher cards that relief workers 
distribute to the homeless, and state and parolee identification 
cards, police said. Officials believe homeless addicts used the cards 
as collateral to buy drugs on credit, redeeming the cards when their 
monthly government checks arrived. Officers also confiscated computer 
laptops and 40 cellphones that they said had been stolen to pay for drugs.

"We are tired of people bringing these types of drugs into a 
community that is so vulnerable," said LAPD Capt. Andy Smith, whose 
command includes the skid row area. "This is an organized pattern. 
They are bringing the narcotics down here just to make money."

Police booked Damian Boss, 26, Sorena Gray, 42, Freddia Jones, 37, 
and Cynthia Childress, 36, for alleged possession of rock cocaine for 
sale. The other four suspects were not immediately identified. All 
are part of an extended family, police said.

The arrests are part of a campaign by city and state leaders to clean 
up an area that is home to the largest concentration of homeless 
people in the western United States.

The department had considered a more radical plan to tear down skid 
row's ubiquitous tent cities but, after a successful court challenge 
by civil libertarians, decided to focus on crime, including drugs, 
that Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has blamed for 
creating a "culture of lawlessness."

While the area's drug bazaars attract buyers citywide -- including 
movie stars -- aid workers said they are particularly disturbed 
because the drugs are peddled just feet from major drug treatment centers.

"When the checks come out early in the month, they can just walk out 
onto the street and buy drugs," said Jim Howat, director of 
Volunteers of America, a service that runs a housing and drug 
rehabilitation program on skid row. "It's almost like a reinvestment period."

Smith, the LAPD captain, said pushers will "come down here late at 
night, complete their transaction and then go back home. They are 
selling the drugs as fast as people can hand them money."

According to police, LAPD Officers Jose Ferreira and Derrick Prude 
spotted one of the suspects -- a man they said they recognized as 
having had a previous felony warrant on a drug possession charge -- 
getting out of a taxicab near skid row about 2 a.m. Thursday.

The cabdriver told them he had picked up the fare at the Days Inn 
Downtown, a hotel in the 700 block of North Main Street. Later, 
Ferreira and Prude said, they found the suspect and seven other 
family members -- four males and four females in all -- at the hotel 
along with dozens of crack pipes, including some packaged as "two for 
one" deals, with a small amount of cocaine included with the pipe. 
Officers said they also seized six ounces of crack cocaine wrapped in 
cellophane and packaged in soda cans and prescription medicine 
bottles, a hatchet, a stun gun and knives.

Police believe the family moved from hotel to hotel, fleeing when 
they thought authorities were closing in. They identified the mother 
as the alleged ringleader and said she was saving the cash for a down 
payment on a house. She was not identified.

"This is not something a street officer would see on a daily basis or 
even a yearly basis," Ferreira said.

The suspects are expected to make their first court appearances next 
week. Authorities said they were searching for a ninth person who may 
be linked to the alleged drug operation.

Skid row, with 11,000 to 12,000 homeless living in the area bordered 
by 3rd, 7th, Main and Alameda streets, accounts for up to 20% of all 
drug crimes in Los Angeles. In December, undercover detectives posing 
as drug dealers there arrested 14 potential drug buyers, including 
Hollywood actor Brad Renfro.
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