22 Students Arrested in Narbonne Drug Sting

Cruz seemed to be your run-of-the-mill teen-age pothead.

The Narbonne High School junior ditched classes regularly. He seldom did his homework. He had a kick-back schedule that included ceramics, auto shop, physical education and work in the main office. He smoked cigarettes and wore a T-shirt advertising the heavy-metal band WASP. And he spent a lot of time looking to buy marijuana and cocaine.

Last week, students and teachers at the Harbor City school found out that “Cruz Lopez” wasn’t a stoner. He’s a cop who allegedly bought drugs from 22 students as part of the Los Angeles Police Department’s School Buy program. The students face expulsion and felony charges for selling narcotics.

Police Chief Daryl F. Gates will hold a press conference today to announce details of undercover arrests at several high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

The School Buy program began in 1974. The last time an undercover officer infiltrated Narbonne was four years ago.

Most teachers and students interviewed at the ethnically diverse school said they support the effort to drive drugs off campus. But some of the students who were arrested said they never dealt drugs before and that Lopez goaded them into the sales. Others claimed that the undercover officer smoked marijuana with them.

Police officials declined to reveal Lopez’s identity or to let him answer questions about the sting. But they dismissed the students’ allegations, saying those caught selling drugs typically say that they were entrapped or that undercover officers violated police regulations by using drugs.

Police Department spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said undercover officers are trained to buy drugs only from established dealers.

It was two weeks into the school year when Lopez arrived on campus. Only Principal Patrick Donahoe knew that one of his students was a policeman. He learned which one shortly before most of the students were arrested Dec. 4, Donahoe said.

Lopez made one of his drug contacts in a science class, where he caused some problems. The new kid in school was repeatedly moved by the teacher to new lab groups in the class in an attempt to get him to do his work, said a classmate and the science teacher.

The 16-year-old classmate, who was arrested on suspicion of two felony drug sales, discussed his experience on the condition that his real name not be published.

Three weeks into the school year, Lopez asked during class if “Darren” had any marijuana for sale, said the 16-year-old. He said he had never sold or used drugs before.

In 2 1/2 months, Lopez asked as many as 20 times if Darren could sell him drugs, the teen-ager said.

In late September, he acted as a middleman and bought $10 worth of marijuana for Lopez. The next week, he sold Lopez a joint for $2. The $12 went to a campus dealer who supplied the drugs, Darren said, adding that he never made a cent.

Police later said the joint had actually been tobacco, not marijuana, according to Darren’s mother. But selling a substance that is falsely represented as an illegal drug is a felony, Booth said.

“I was nervous about it,” Darren said of the sales. “But I thought he would be a better friend if I did it for him. I have a hard time making friends at school.

“I thought he would like me more because I’d get him what he wanted. He’d feel like I was cool.”

Darren--who is overweight and has few school chums, according to his mother--said Lopez continued to pressure him, even when told that Darren couldn’t get any more drugs.

For the $12 transactions, Darren has been suspended, and Donahoe has recommended to the school board that he be expelled along with 15 other students who allegedly sold drugs to Lopez. Six other students who have been implicated by Lopez had transferred to other schools by the time they were arrested last week. They face expulsion as well.

Darren’s mother is angry. “He was approached and asked to get involved in something that otherwise he wouldn’t have been involved in,” she said.

Another student in the science class and the instructor, Gene Yamamoto, said they were shocked to hear that Darren had been arrested for selling drugs.

Yamamoto said Darren is an enthusiastic student who was earning an A. Lopez, he said, seldom worked in class and was “smart-alecky.” The veteran teacher said he moved Lopez’s seat repeatedly because he was a burden to his lab partners.

“I do have mixed feelings about it,” Yamamoto said of the School Buy program. “I don’t want the kids to be entrapped, but the problem we are having with drugs has to be stopped.”

A recent issue of the campus newspaper, the Green & Gold, reported that 22% of 124 students surveyed admitted using drugs.

John Northmore, a counselor to gang members at the Harbor City Teen Post, said one of his clients told him that Lopez was particularly aggressive in seeking drugs.

“He kept bugging (the client) to sell drugs, or to tell him someone who would,” Northmore said. “The kid finally said, ‘Look, sucker, get away from me.’ And (my client) socked him.

“To the best of my knowledge, the (client) does not sell and does not want to sell,” Northmore said, “but he hangs around with some kids who do.”

Three other teen-agers told Northmore that they smoked marijuana with the undercover officer or saw him doing drugs. Four other students, interviewed near the campus this week, said they smoked marijuana with Lopez.

“I don’t think it’s cool at all,” said one teen-age boy whose friend was arrested. “(Lopez) pretends to be your friend and then he snitches on you.”

LAPD’s Booth said he would not discuss specifics of the Narbonne arrests until today’s press conference. But he said the undercover officers “do not use drugs.”

“That’s another common defense by suspects,” Booth said. “We have been dealing with it for many years now. Part of the (officers’) training has to do with how to avoid using drugs” without blowing their cover.

Most of about 20 students interviewed on the Western Avenue campus this week said they were unaware of the arrests. Others seemed resigned to having a “narc” on campus. One boy said: “People cared about it, but they couldn’t do nothing to stop it.”

The arrests will become more widely known today, when the Green & Gold publishes pro-and-con opinion pieces on the subject.

Junior Yea-Lan Chiang wrote that some students might sell drugs in a bid for friendship, even if they are not hard-core dealers.

But senior Willie Hill wrote that those arrested should not make excuses. “I feel that no matter how much someone pressures you, you should stick to your principles,” Hill said in an interview Thursday.

Several teachers said they accept the drug-buy program as a necessary evil.

“On the one hand, drugs are a big problem, and something has to be done. Every person has to be aware that what they do has a consequence,” said George Ljubenkov, chairman of the art department. “On the other hand, I don’t really like the feeling that Big Brother is watching.”