Police, Legislators Call for Federal Drug Task Force in Southland

Saying that Southern California has been badly shortchanged in the amount of federal support given to the fight against drugs, local law enforcement officials joined federal legislators Friday in calling for a federal task force similar to one established six years ago in southern Florida.

As outlined in pending legislation by Sen. Alan Cranston (D-Calif.) and Reps. Howard Berman (D-Panorama City) and Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), the Southern California task force would nearly double the number of federal agents assigned to combat drug traffic here.

Currently in Los Angeles only half as many federal agents as local police staff drug cases, limiting the number of international investigations that can be pursued, said Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Glenn Levant at a press conference.

“That’s a ludicrous situation, because the drug problem is just as much international as it is local,” Levant said.

But he said federal agencies cannot commit to a task force “without robbing their already very skimpy (personnel) resources.”

Los Angeles County Sheriff Sherman Block said the Los Angeles area is not only a major center of illicit drug consumption but is “perhaps the major transshipment point” for many drugs.

“It’s essential we have the resources capable to deal with the national and international problem,” Block said.

The House version of the bill, introduced last week and now being reviewed by several congressional committees, would assign additional Coast Guard personnel, assistant U.S. attorneys, drug enforcement agents, Customs Service officials and others to posts throughout Southern California.

Cranston’s bill, introduced earlier, contains similar provisions.

In the Drug Enforcement Agency alone, 124 positions would be added to an existing staff of 169, Levine said at the press conference.

Levine said that Southern California has not received its fair share of federal anti-drug support because legislators in Washington initially perceived the East Coast drug problem to be more urgent.

“While men and money have been poured into New York and Miami, Los Angeles has had to make due with significantly less,” the lawmaker said. “As a result, much of the drug traffic which used to flow into the country through the East Coast has started coming to the West Coast.”

The Los Angeles office of the Drug Enforcement Agency, which covers parts of other western states, has about half as many special agents as New York, Levine said. Another federal office here, the U.S. attorney’s office, now has one of the smallest per-case staffs of assistant attorneys in the nation, Levine said.

“You won’t find one police department in Southern California not supportive of this (legislation),” Levant said.