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Councilman Seeks 2nd Drug Task Force

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Times Staff Writer

In what one of his colleagues characterized as a publicity stunt, Los Angeles Councilman Nate Holden has called for the creation of a multi-agency task force to stop drug smuggling in San Pedro Bay--even though such a task force already exists.

“I told him we already have one, but he went ahead anyway with a press release and press conference and the whole works,” said harbor-area Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who aides said was fuming over the matter. “Frankly, I think Nate is more interested in getting his name in the paper.”

During his first year on the council, Holden, a former state senator and longtime deputy to Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, has developed a reputation as a maverick who has championed several popular causes--including a ban on real-looking toy guns--but one who also shoots from the hip on some issues.

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In this case, the councilman dismissed Flores’ criticism as the self-serving remarks of a local politician miffed by an intrusion on her turf.

“That harbor is for the entire city,” Holden said in an interview. “Joan Milke Flores and no other City Council person is considered to have a monopoly on it. She says there is a task force, but we don’t know much about what they are doing, if anything. If they have a task force, then what are all these drugs doing here? The killings are still going on. The drug pushers are still out there every day.”

Holden’s proposal to create the task force had been scheduled for City Council discussion on Tuesday. The item was tagged by the City News Service, a wire-service agency that serves local news media, and was mentioned on radio newscasts Tuesday morning. Television cameras were mounted at the front of the council chambers in anticipation of the discussion.

But Flores would have none of it. While the council voted unanimously to consider several other motions on the agenda, Flores insisted that Holden’s proposal not be considered. With five members absent, the council then voted 8-2 to discuss the proposal--two short of the 10 votes needed for passage. As a result, the motion was routinely sent to the council’s Police, Fire and Public Safety Committee, which could take it up as early as next week.

In an interview after the vote, an angry Holden accused Flores of trying to keep other council members from examining what goes on in her district.

“She represents the harbor, and didn’t want certain information to come out,” he said. “You can quote me on that. She is not the task force. She is just a councilwoman. Is she going to take responsibility for the deaths from the drugs coming in, too?”

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Flores, in an interview, denied she was trying to withhold information from her colleagues, but said the task force is involved in sensitive investigations that could be jeopardized by a City Council debate.

“I don’t think this kind of public exposure of this operation is the wisest thing in the world,” Flores said. “Some of the success of an operation like this is obviously gotten from being able to work undetected. I told (Holden) if he wants information on the task force that he try to get it another way than publicly. I guess that didn’t satisfy his needs.”

Preparing Report

Operation Pacific, a 12-member task force that includes representatives from five law enforcement agencies, was established in 1983 to combat drug smuggling in Los Angeles and Long Beach harbors. Los Angeles Police Lt. Kenneth Welty, who supervises the five Los Angeles Police Department detectives on the task force, said the group is preparing a report on its activities that will be presented to Holden and other members at the council committee meeting.

Welty said the task force “is no big secret,” but he said the participating agencies, while publicizing some of its accomplishments, have avoided attracting attention to the task force itself.

“If it is widely known that we have a group doing this, it is conceivable that some local marine smugglers might move their operations and that could have an adverse impact on some investigations that we are doing,” he said.

Holden said it was never his intention to “reveal secrets,” but he said he was disturbed by reports that police have allowed drugs to enter the Port of Los Angeles so they can trace them to the “big fat cat” buyers and pushers.

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“Unfortunately, 95% of those drugs end up in South-Central Los Angeles and other parts of the city,” Holden said in a press release. “The worst case is that gang members go to war with other gang members to protect their neighborhood and to preserve the right to sell drugs within their territory.”

Welty acknowledged that authorities sometimes permit drugs to enter the port for surveillance purposes, but he said those drugs are monitored by police and eventually confiscated. Flores defended that policy, too.

“If you are desirous to get the little suitcase-full, that is one thing, but if you want to find out where the ships-full are coming from, you don’t stop with the guy with the suitcase,” she said. “I think most people who watch TV understand that.”

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