Drug Sale at Swap Meet Probed in Boy’s Death

Detectives are investigating whether a 2-year-old Northridge boy died because of an unknown drug his parents bought at a swap meet and had a neighborhood woman inject, police said Friday.

The toddler, whom the Los Angeles County coroner’s office identified as Jesse Gonzalez, died Thursday morning in his family’s apartment in the Bryant Street-Vanalden Avenue area, Los Angeles Police Lt. Steve Day said.

Police expect the coroner’s office to determine exactly what the drug is and the reason for the child’s death, Day said.

“It’s a medicine of some sort,” Day said, “and we don’t know at this point whether or not that was the cause of the death.”

Names Not Revealed

The names of the parents, the neighborhood woman who injected the drug and another woman who apparently sold it at a Sun Valley swap meet were not disclosed because of a continuing investigation, Day said.

No arrests have been made, although Day said detectives Thursday seized “hundreds of boxes” of drugs that apparently were legitimately produced in Mexico. The drugs were seized from the woman’s stall at the Sun Valley Discount Center in the 11300 block of Penrose Street, Day said.

Detectives are investigating whether the use of such underground drugs might be common in the San Fernando Valley among Latino immigrants reluctant to seek more conventional medical care, the lieutenant said.

‘Old Capitalism’

Although county health officials have warned immigrants to avoid traditional folk remedies, Day said, the drugs in this case are “not home remedies or bathtub kinds of concoctions. . . . This is strictly old capitalism at work.”

The illegal sale of prescription drugs at swap meets “is becoming more and more prevalent,” said Kenneth Sain, supervising inspector for the Los Angeles district of the state Board of Pharmacy.

“These products are produced in other countries, particularly in Mexico, where they don’t have the restrictions on them that they do in this country,” Sain said.

State and federal laws prohibit the unlicensed sale of prescription drugs, which must carry a federal label that says they can be sold only by prescription, Sain said.

State law also prohibits unauthorized people to inject substances into others, Sain said.

Boy Had a Cold

The boy’s father, 24, and mother, 20, told investigators that their son, one of four children, had contracted a cold. The parents bought the drug Wednesday at the swap meet and took the boy to the neighborhood woman for the injection that evening, he said.

“If you wanted an injection, she would provide it for you,” Day said of the woman, 49, who he said is not a doctor or registered nurse. “She has done this on several occasions and she has, in fact, charged a fee.”

The boy’s parents were at work Thursday morning when a baby sitter discovered that the child was not breathing and dialed the emergency 911 number, Day said. The child was pronounced dead at the scene.