LAPD Narcotics Seizures for 1985 Hit $1.13 Billion

A raid on a marijuana farm believed to be the largest ever discovered inside the city limit has raised the total street value of narcotics seized by Los Angeles police this year to a record $1.13 billion, Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said Wednesday.

The amount, he said, is four times as much as was confiscated in 1984.

Officers seized 305 high-grade “sinsemilla,” or seedless, marijuana plants, ranging from five to six feet in height and valued at $337,500, when they swooped down on an illicit farming operation in Mulholland Canyon.

“We think this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Gates told reporters at Parker Center, as he stood amid stacks of evidence--packets of cocaine, trash bags overflowing with sinsemilla and a display of automatic weapons. “There’s a lot more out there.”

The FBI, in a separate press conference Wednesday, reported confiscation of 462 pounds of cocaine from a “stash house” in La Canada.

The seizure, FBI supervisory Agent Ken Jacobsen said, was only slightly smaller than the 556 pounds of cocaine confiscated last May in a joint operation by Los Angeles and Pasadena police, cooperating with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which was a record seizure for the Los Angeles area.

Los Angeles police also reported a sharp increase in drug seizures in terms of poundage. For example, officers this year have collected 2,500 pounds of cocaine worth an estimated $717 million. By contrast, 2,353 pounds of cocaine were seized in the four previous years combined.

Gates attributed the rising numbers both to an increase in drug traffic and to more aggressive police work. The police chief said a crackdown on drug traffickers in Florida has pushed much of the narcotics importation to Los Angeles.

Better cooperation between law enforcement authorities and improved communication with the public have led to numerous arrests, Gates said.

“We’ve got people in the community who tell us about ‘rock houses’ and drug dealers,” he said.

Detectives raided the marijuana farm, west of the San Diego Freeway and the Sepulveda Pass, after receiving an anonymous tip, Gates said. The plants were being grown amid large trees and shrubs and were being fed by a drip-watering system hooked up to three 55-gallon drums.

No arrests were made in the raid, but the investigation is continuing, police said.

The FBI arrested Alberto Jesus Gallego, a 48-year-old Colombian, in the La Canada operation.

The FBI also disclosed Wednesday the seizure of 11 pounds of cocaine and the arrest of six suspects in Oxnard on Tuesday in a separate investigation.

Patrick J. Mullaney, assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles FBI office, said: “We do mean business. Business will not be as usual for drug traffickers in Los Angeles.”