‘Sting’ Raids Net 43 Theft Suspects Across L.A. Area

Squads of officers from seven law-enforcement agencies arrested 43 suspects in early-morning raids at Los Angeles and Westside-area homes Tuesday, climaxing an 11-month police anti-thievery sting operation headquartered in a Beverly Hills storefront.

Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said the latest undercover effort by the Westside Major Crime Violators Task Force recovered $6.3 million worth of stolen property, including automatic weapons, automobiles, jewelry, computers, stereo equipment and television sets.

In addition, Gates told a press conference, the officers obtained stolen credit cards representing a potential loss of $44.5 million.

The raids brought to 150 the total of those arrested during the lengthy operation. Another 16 suspects were being sought.

Exclusive Import-Export Co. at 265 S. Robertson Blvd. was out of business Tuesday, but during the 11-month investigation, its operators had let it be known that they were in the market for “hot” merchandise--but had not bothered to tell their eager customers they were undercover officers.

Nearly 99% of the stolen merchandise and documents have been identified and are being returned to their owners, authorities said Tuesday.

Numerous Police Agencies

The task force is made up of officers from the Beverly Hills, Culver City, Los Angeles and Santa Monica police forces as well as from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and the University of California Police Department.

The task force was formed more than four years ago and has staged previous sting operations in Culver City and Santa Monica. Because all transactions were secretly videotaped, said Los Angeles police spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke, prosecution has been relatively easy.

He noted that in earlier cases, 50% of the suspects pleaded guilty at their arraignments and most of the others pleaded guilty later.

The sting operation that concluded Tuesday was made possible by a state grant of $75,000.

Cooke said it was so successful that one car thief who brought them a stolen automobile and was arrested by uniformed officers several blocks away failed to realize how his arrest had come about.

“He called us from prison later and said he liked dealing with us so much that he hoped we wouldn’t go out of business so he could come back again when he got out,” Cooke said.

The business was open seven days a week, Cooke said. “We never closed.”

At one point, the lieutenant recalled, the proprietor of an adjoining shop complained to the building owner about the “strange people” coming and going to the supposed import-export business, “so we had to take him into our confidence.”

Many Stolen Guns

Cooke said it was “unnerving” how many stolen guns were brought to the store--including 30 rifles, eight automatic weapons and 49 handguns.

The undercover officers also took in 34 stolen automobiles and one motorcycle.

In one case, Cooke said, a professional car thief asked the officers what kind of car they wanted him to steal. They took him to a nearby car agency and showed him a Porsche. Then they kept him under surveillance. When he got the car, they got him.

“We had one guy who claimed he was a professional hit-man and thought we were so cool,” Cooke said, “that he wanted to become associated with our organization. He said he had knocked off five people and for $15,000 he would go to a house and knock off the husband, or the wife, or the kid or the cockroach or the rat . . . whatever you wanted.”

So, Cooke added, officers gave him a down payment and a fictitious address--which was a vacant lot on a dead-end street.

“When he showed up, we arrested him,” Cooke said.

Officers said that since its inception, the task force has been responsible for 1,927 arrests, many of them on such charges as murder, robbery, burglary and narcotics.

An interested spectator with one raiding group of officers Tuesday morning was George E. Doonan, whose company manufactures women’s blouses. He said merchandise was disappearing from his inventories for at least six years. He went to the police, who referred him to the task force. The undercover officers at Exclusive put out “orders” for blouses in the styles and colors produced by Doonan.

The orders were filled by clients of Exclusive.

“We asked for blue and pink and that’s what they gave us,” Doonan said.

He said the key suspect in that case was one of his longtime employees.

“The one outstanding feature of this whole thing,” Cooke said, “is that they come to us. We don’t have to be running around the alleys at midnight.”