Weapons Caches Found : Drug Raids Net $1.8 Million in Speed

Police seized more than $1.8 million worth of methamphetamine, arrested nine people suspected of being members of a drug-manufacturing ring and found caches of weapons and explosives when they raided a home in North Hollywood and two in San Bernardino County, investigators said Friday.

The raids Wednesday and Thursday netted more than 40 pounds of methamphetamine, commonly called speed; 21 grams of cocaine; drug-manufacturing equipment; 51 guns and a quantity of explosives, Los Angeles Police Officer Dennis Packer said.

He said police raided the home in the 11100 block of Arminta Street in North Hollywood Thursday night and found two men and a woman heavily armed inside. They surrendered peacefully, he said, and were in custody at the Van Nuys police station with bail set at $75,000 each. Police said they also confiscated 29 grams of methamphetamine crystal at the station.

Arrested on suspicion of conspiring to manufacture methamphetamine were William Michael Wagg, 27, Pamela Brookskin Martin, 29, and David Allan Fallentine, 28, all of North Hollywood.

3 Homes Searched

Officers also searched two homes in Mission Hills and one in Van Nuys but found no evidence of clandestine laboratories, Packer said.

The day before, police had seized 40 pounds of liquid methamphetamine that was still cooking in two labs at a house in the San Bernardino County community of Oro Grande, near Victorville. Four arrests were made there, and two others were in the nearby city of Hesperia, Packer said.

Officers also confiscated cocaine, guns, $5,000 worth of lab equipment and detonation cords used to set off dynamite, Packer said.

Arrested on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine were Donis Ryan Pelser, 29, Frank Edward Prest, 23, John Amos Prest, 60, and Richard James Messina, 40, all of Oro Grande. They were being held at the San Bernardino County sheriff’s substation in Victorville in lieu of $200,000 bail each.

Arrested in Hesperia were James Drynen Ellis, 26, of Birmingham, England, and Allan Michael Maggio, 31, of Hesperia. They were held at the Victorville substation in lieu of $10,000 bail each on suspicion of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine.

The Oro Grande raid was the 13th lab seizure this year involving the Los Angeles Police Department’s Clandestine Laboratory Squad. Seven of those seizures were of methamphetamine and the others were of PCP, Packer said.

So far this year the squad, individually or jointly with other agencies, has confiscated more than 264 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of more than $14.7 million, a 65% increase over the same period last year, he said.