Federal Agents Arrest Top-Level Drug Suspect in Raid on Lab Near Riverside

Acting on a tip by agents who traded food stamps for PCP in Missouri, investigators in Los Angeles seized a laboratory that supplied the illicit drug and arrested a top-level suspect, authorities said Friday.

John M. Zienter, special-agent-in-charge of the Los Angeles office of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the Los Angeles Street Gang Drug-Trafficking Task Force found 30 gallons of PCP in a lab operating in a house in the unincorporated community of Rubidoux near Riverside and arrested James Alvin Patten, 41, and three associates.

Patten was identified as a former Bloods street gang member, who allegedly masterminded a manufacturing and distributing network that has produced “a minimum of 250 gallons” of PCP in the last two years. The drugs were allegedly supplied to street-gang sellers and out-of-state distributors.

Agents also arrested Michael E. Butz, 31, an active Riverside Crips gang member who allegedly guarded the lab; Belinda Jo Lindsey, 30, of Compton, described by authorities as a distributor, and Clarence L. Jones, of Compton, allegedly an assistant at the lab.

The investigation leading to the arrests started in Kansas City earlier this year when U.S. Department of Agriculture investigators exchanged food stamps for PCP, according to DEA spokesman Ralph Lochridge.

Traced to Los Angeles

Working backward toward the source, investigators traced the drug to mid-level distributors in Los Angeles, then finally to the laboratory and Patten, Lochridge said.

The 30 gallons seized by agents has an average wholesale street value of about $300,000 to gang buyers in Los Angeles, Lochridge said. Back East, he said, that amount would cost more than $1 million.

While crack, which is made from cocaine, is getting most of the publicity these days, Lochridge said, PCP also is a “nasty and continuing problem,” particularly in inner-city areas.

The four suspects were arraigned Friday before a U.S. magistrate. Because Patten and Jones have previous felony PCP drug convictions, they face 20 years to life in prison if convicted, Lochridge said.