Drug Deals a Bust in Torrance : Traffickers Pursued Far From Home

Torrance Police Lt. David Marsden remembers the days 20 years ago when drug investigations were small, compact operations.

Detectives were tipped off to small-time drug dealers and could put them out of business with one undercover purchase.

That all changed about five years ago, when the South Americans arrived.

Now Torrance detectives find themselves allied with federal agents in pursuit of international cocaine traffickers who have made Torrance and other points in the county national distribution centers for their multibillion-dollar industry.

“I think they have discovered the South Bay and we have discovered how to find them,” said Torrance Police Sgt. Gary La Croix, who heads the department’s six-man narcotics detail.

3 Portuguese Arrested

Last week, Torrance police scored their biggest success to date, seizing 508 pounds of cocaine in East Los Angeles and arresting three men there on suspicion of drug trafficking. The three are Portuguese nationals--unusual for suspected cocaine traffickers, police say. They are scheduled for arraignment next week.

But making the arrests so far from Torrance was not unusual. While all their investigations start with surveillance in Torrance, police often travel well outside the city limits to complete their cases. In a case last year, for example, Torrance drug agents arrested five Colombians in Reseda and seized $180,000 and more than 40 pounds of cocaine.

“Sometimes we see ourselves popping up in another city and someone on the outside could conceivably say: ‘Why are Torrance police doing that?’ ” Marsden said.

Chief Donald Nash said that drug investigations can no longer be confined to one town. Although the drugs seized Feb. 9 were believed to have been bound for the East Coast, Nash said that arrests and cocaine seizures outside Torrance often help reduce the supply of drugs locally.

U.S. Agents Need Help

A spokesman for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration said the agency’s 90 agents in Los Angeles are swamped trying to keep up with the burgeoning drug trade. “Unless we work jointly with our counterparts in local police departments, it is next to impossible to do anything,” Special Agent Roger Guevara said.

He noted that the Torrance, Pasadena and West Covina police departments have been among the most active in fighting international drug smugglers.

The south coast of Florida used to the be the preferred point of entry for cocaine shipments from South America, but authorities say that an intensive crackdown there by police and federal officials has forced the traffickers to Los Angeles and other areas. Police officials cited a slowdown of the Florida drug trade as contributing to a 67% increase in felony drug arrests made in California from 1980 to 1985.

Major drug dealers choose to operate in Torrance and neighboring cities because of their proximity to the Port of Los Angeles and to Los Angeles International Airport, according to Marsden. They come to the South Bay for the same reasons as anyone else.

“We are relatively crime-free, and that makes us attractive to the traffickers at the top level because they are moving (drugs) in the millions of dollars,” Marsden said. “They also like to blend in and enjoy the amenities. . . . They just love to shop at the Del Amo mall, and when you are on one of these cases you are guaranteeing yourself a surveillance at Disneyland.”

The smugglers typically rent several apartments or homes and drive late-model cars. They like to pay cash and think nothing of abandoning clothes, cars and other possessions if they suspect police surveillance, La Croix said.

Cocaine and cash are moved quickly from stash houses to their destinations, according to Drug Enforcement Administration agent Guevara. Most of the big drug loads will be trucked across the country, but some will remain for sale in the big Los Angeles market, he added.

Torrance detectives have been among the most successful in locating these stash houses, Guevara said.

From 1984 through 1986, city police seized cocaine shipments with a total value they estimated at $28.4 million. Figures for 1987 have not yet been compiled. Last week’s seizure alone was estimated at $23 million.

Congress provided additional incentive for local police in 1984 with the passage of the Equitable Sharing Act. The law requires the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI and the U.S. Customs Service to share cash and other seized assets with police departments that assist in drug cases.

Torrance officers have impounded more than $3 million in the last three years and received about $350,000 back from federal officials. The United States requires that the money be used for police work, and department administrators are still trying to decide where to spend most of it, Marsden said.

Working the drug detail is a preferred assignment in the Torrance Police Department, according to Marsden, despite the fact detectives work as long as 60 hours a week.

“You’ve got to love it or you can’t do it,” Sgt. La Croix said. “They (the smugglers) are the ultimate challenge in police work. These people are so organized. They are set up almost like spy agencies.”

Most South Bay police departments continue with more traditional narcotics investigations--arresting local pushers and trying to get them to identify their suppliers.

Another large South Bay department, Inglewood’s, decided 11 months ago to attack the other side of the problem--drug users.

“Users have generally been looked at as victims, like alcoholics, but they are responsible for at least 50% of the problem,” said Inglewood Police Lt. Larry Carter, the head of the department’s narcotics unit. “What I think we need to do is attack the people who are really responsible for the narcotic trade, and that is the buyer.”

Carter said he does not fault the Torrance approach, but said that even with increased drug seizures and an emphasis on suppliers, law enforcement nationally has been able to cut off only about 15% of drugs.

Inglewood detectives have arrested about 200 users in the last year, after mounting sting operations on street corners and in rock houses where cocaine is sold, he said.

His department hopes to drive drug dealers out of Inglewood by making users uneasy about buying drugs there, Carter said.