Special Team : Pasadena’s Biggest Pot Haul Hailed

A weekend drug raid here that netted 860 pounds of marijuana--the largest marijuana bust in city history--is the latest evidence that a citywide crackdown on drug traffic is working, police officials say.

The marijuana seized during Saturday’s raid has a street value of $2 million, said Sgt. Wayne Hiltz of the Narcotics Task Force, a 2-year-old police unit that was formed to combat increased drug trafficking.

The marijuana raid was the task force’s second major bust this month. A week earlier, six officers, acting on an informant’s tip, seized 320 grams of high-quality heroin, valued at $500,000, from the back of a pick-up truck. It was the second-largest heroin seizure in city history.

Officers Hand-Picked

The task force, the brainchild of Police Chief Robert McGowan, began as a temporary unit of the narcotics/vice division. Five officers, hand-picked by McGowan, were added to the two-man narcotics division. In its first year of operation, the task force more than doubled the number of drug-related arrests, officials said.

Based on that performance, McGowan successfully lobbied the Board of City Directors last year to increase the narcotic division’s yearly budget from about $100,000 to $550,000 to support the expansion. The task force was made a permanent unit in October.

“It’s one of the most prudent decisions the city directors have ever made,” McGowan said this week. “What we had before was inadequate.”

Enlarging the narcotics division has resulted not only in more drug arrests, but bigger ones involving large-scale drug operations, police officials said.

“We’re taking a more aggressive stance. We’ve been very fortunate lately,” Hiltz said.

Police attribute the the increase in drug traffic here to a single, persuasive cause: money.

“That’s why you see more youngsters doing it,” Hiltz said, “they can go out and sell drugs and the profits are tremendous.”

Hiltz was reluctant to give details about task force operations, saying such information could tip off drug dealers to police informants and undercover methods.

He did say, however, that the group has focused its attention on an increase of drug dealers who sell their wares on street corners in full view of the public. Ironically, Hiltz said, that increase was prompted by the task force.

“Three or four years ago,” Hiltz said, “the problem was drug houses, houses where people went to buy drugs. Once we started coming down on them, it pushed them out onto the street. And once they’re on the street, it’s more blatant, and more visible to the average . . . citizen.”