Local News in Brief : 18 Arrested in Cocaine Sting

Undercover officers took over an open-air rock cocaine market in north Inglewood on Thursday night and arrested 18 people in another of the department’s “reverse sting” operations aimed at drug buyers.

An undercover officer posing as a drug dealer set up shop on the 700 block of North Market Street, where residents have complained of incessant street dealing, sold rocks of cocaine costing $10 or $20 and then arrested the buyers. The operation lasted five hours.

Those arrested ranged in age from 18 to 54. Unlike many of the 15 previous stings, which have netted buyers from as far away as Lancaster, all but one arrested Thursday were from Inglewood.

Most were charged with possession of narcotics. Stanley Davenport, 26, of Inglewood was also charged with assault with a deadly weapon after he allegedly crashed his car into a police vehicle, narrowly missing an officer, as police apprehended him. He is being held on $5,000 bail, police said.

The operations--called “reverse stings” because police pose as drug dealers rather than buyers--are intended to reduce drug sales in Inglewood by discouraging buyers from patronizing dealers in the city.