Burbank Vigil : Police Ask Realtors to Look for Drug Dealers

Burbank police are asking local real-estate agents to help them detect large-scale drug dealers when they move to the city.

Launching an anti-drug program, police officials met this week with more than 200 real estate agents, appealing to them to report people who fit the profile of major cocaine dealers, Lt. Joseph Valento said.

The dealers and their families, in a pattern increasingly seen by police, quietly move into a middle class or upper-class neighborhood and enroll children in school and seem little different from their neighbors, Valento said. But, at a meeting with real estate brokers Thursday, police outlined the signs that they said should arouse suspicion.

Buy Homes With Cash

Police asked real estate agents to watch for people who have recently arrived in the United States, speak little English, drive expensive autos and purchase homes with cash. They often tell people they work “in the import-export business” or jewelry sales, Valento said. Frequently they are from Colombia or other South American countries, he said.

“They try not to be too flashy. They just want to assimilate into the community,” Valento said Friday.

“Just because someone fits these criteria doesn’t mean that they are involved in narcotics trafficking,” Valento said. “We emphasize that very strongly to everyone that we talk to about the program.”

Copy of Other Programs

He said the Burbank program is modeled after ones used by other agencies, but he refused to name them.

“We’re asking that, if they come in contact with people in Burbank who fit the criteria, that they would give us a call and let us know and we’ll take it from there,” Valento said.

Jack Thorpe, executive vice president of the Burbank Board of Realtors, refused to comment on the program, saying he had been instructed by police not to.