20 at Times Costa Mesa Plant Charged With Drug Sales

Twenty production employees of the Los Angeles Times Orange County edition were charged Tuesday with selling cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine to fellow employees, authorities said.

The charges culminated a five-month investigation that began in August, when The Times contacted the Orange County Sheriff’s Department with information that drugs allegedly were being sold at the newspaper’s Costa Mesa facility.

The suspects were arrested Tuesday and bail was set at $25,000 each. All of those taken into custody were employed in the newspaper’s 800-worker production department, where the presses and composing rooms are situated. The Times employs 1,770 people at the plant.

Informants Used

Capt. Tim Simon, head of the Sheriff’s Department Special Investigations Unit, said the investigation used informants, whom he declined to identify, to buy the drugs.

“There was no undercover police officer at any time operating on the plant property or disguised as a Times employee,” he said. “The buys were made in what we call a controlled fashion, that were backed up with tape recordings of the transaction.”

Beginning in September and continuing through last week, Simon said, informants made 32 separate purchases of small amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. The drugs were bought from the 20 suspects, Simon said.

Of the 32 separate buys, Simon said 20 were for cocaine, four were for methamphetamine and eight were for marijuana. The total amount of cocaine purchased came to 10 3/8 ounces; 5 3/4 ounces of marijuana and 1 7/8 ounces of methamphetamine also were purchased. Simon said the investigation was conducted so that all but five of the purchases were made off Times property.

In a separate announcement, Tom Johnson, publisher and chief executive officer of The Times, said the 20 people who were arrested were being suspended, along with four other employees. Johnson said the suspensions of the 24 employees were not related to the arrest warrants, but were a result of The Times’ internal investigation.

Publisher’s Statement

Johnson released a statement to all Times employees in which he said that the newspaper received information several months ago regarding possible drug dealing at the Orange County plant.

“We took the only responsible course open to us and contacted a law enforcement agency,” he said. “Because of our deep concern for each of you, The Times cannot and will not tolerate the possession or sale of illegal drugs on Times property.”

Orange County Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates said the situation at The Times was “typical as to what we have found in other corporate structures. Any large corporation probably has between 15% and 25% of its employees that use drugs, whether on the job or not. I don’t think The Times is any worse or better off than anywhere else.”