Family of 5 Arrested in Drug-Dealing Operation at Home

A father, mother and three teen-age sons were arrested Friday in a drug-dealing operation that Newport Beach police said was run out of the family’s home and supplied high school students with marijuana and cocaine.

Hilary Sandra Levin, 38; her son, Scott Michael Levin, 18; and nine other juveniles--including two younger sons, 13 and 15--were arrested Friday afternoon at the family’s house at 21762 Fairlane Circle in Huntington Beach.

Barry Wayne Levin, 43, was arrested later that night at the Newport Beach City Jail when he arrived seeking to post bail for his sons and wife, police said.

“We’re quite happy to have Mrs. Levin in custody,” police spokesman Kent Stoddard said. “We consider her a major source of narcotics to Newport-Harbor High students, both while she lived in Newport and later from Huntington Beach.”

Wayne Rice, an Elsinore resident who lived across a courtyard from the Levins when both families lived in an apartment complex in Newport Beach, said he saw the three boys gardening daily on their porch and mentioned to the apartment manager that he found that odd.

“You don’t see grown teen-agers watering plants, always going out there to sprinkle something,” Rice said.

“They had a shield around their porch; it was kind of enclosed at the bottom, but you could see through a gap that there were potted plants. Now it could’ve just been flowers, but you never see teen-age boys take that kind of an interest in flowers. This was every day.”

Police seized three pounds of marijuana and a quarter-ounce of cocaine, with a combined street value of $6,500, Stoddard said.

Police also seized a small quantity of LSD and found 50 marijuana plants, two of them three feet tall, in the backyard of the house.

Sandra Levin, who police said was the ringleader, was arrested on suspicion of selling narcotics to juveniles and was freed the next day after posting bail of $25,000. Her husband was arrested on suspicion of possession of cocaine for sale and was still in jail Monday at Newport Beach City Jail in lieu of $25,000 bail.

Their 18-year-old son, arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property, was freed Friday after posting $10,000 bail. The remaining juveniles--ages 13-17, arrested on charges of marijuana cultivation and LSD or marijuana possession--were all released to the custody of their parents, police said.

Police said they received a tip last month that a woman named “Sandy” was selling drugs to students from an apartment less than two blocks from Newport-Harbor High School.

When investigators went to the apartment at 506 Irvine Ave., they found that the family had moved to an unknown location.

On July 1, police received a tip from a second informant that a woman named “Sandy” was selling marijuana and cocaine to juveniles from a Huntington Beach house.

Newport Beach investigators kept the house under surveillance for a week. “This revealed heavy traffic to the residence and brief visits consistent with narcotics transactions,” Stoddard said.

Armed with a search warrant, eight to ten officers in black flak jackets rushed from an unmarked police van at about noon Friday and entered the house, Stoddard and neighbors on the cul-de-sac said Monday.

There they found Sandra Levin, her 18-year-old son, two younger sons and a teen-age friend of the sons from Costa Mesa, as well as the marijuana and cocaine in small packages for sale, Stoddard said.

While police were raiding the house, a van with six male juveniles, ages 14-17, pulled up and the youths walked inside seeking to buy drugs, Stoddard said.

Instead, they bought trouble. Five of the youths were arrested on suspicion of possession of marijuana, and the sixth for possession of LSD, Stoddard said. All but one of the juveniles, a Dana Point youth, were from Newport Beach.

Scott Levin was arrested on charges of possession of jewelry that police believe was stolen in an unrelated crime. Barry Levin, the father, was not at home during the raid.

A man representing himself as the Levins’ attorney called police requesting bail information Friday night. When the man appeared at Newport Beach City Jail, a detective called out Barry Levin’s name and the man responded, “Yes,” Stoddard said.

“So he was taken into custody,” Stoddard said.

Neighbors on Fairlane Circle said Monday that they had barely acquainted themselves with the family in the month since the Levins began renting the two-story tract home a few miles from the ocean.

The Levins’ 15-year-old son had introduced himself to her last week when he borrowed a garden shovel, said Carol Madeiros, who lives with her family right across the street from the raided house. “He said he needed it to work on the roses,” Madeiros said, adding that she later saw the boy toiling around the shrubs.

“There’s a lot of traffic over there. A lot of kids,” Madeiros added. “But I just thought they were a real popular family.”