19 People Arrested in High School Drug Probe

Nineteen people, including five Crawford High School students, were arrested Wednesday after a six-month undercover drug investigation based at the school, authorities said.

It was the second such operation in a week. On Monday, San Diego police arrested a total of 12 students at Point Loma and Mission Bay high schools.

Police are searching for seven other people believed to have been involved in the illegal sale of drugs at Crawford. In all, police have identified 26 people--11 students and 15 others--who they say sold narcotics to a female undercover officer who had posed as a student at Crawford since September.

Principal David LeMay said a police task force made the arrests beginning at 8 a.m. Wednesday at the high school, which is in the 4100 block of Colts Way. Numerous arrests were also made off campus, police said.

“They were targeting eight students, but three were absent and will be contacted at home,” LeMay said.

Police alleged that the 26 suspects sold cocaine, marijuana, LSD and methamphetamine to the officer, in a total of 40 transactions. Of the 26 suspects, eight are minors and 18 are adults, ranging in age from 14 to 63. Twenty-two are males and four are females, police said.

The minors will be released to their parents, and the adults will be booked into County Jail, police Lt. Skip DiCerchio said. If parents cannot be located or if the minors have violated probation, they will be sent to Juvenile Hall, he said.

LeMay said the students will be suspended for five days, then transferred to a home-study program until district officials hold an expulsion hearing.

LeMay said he first learned of the undercover operation a week ago. It was the first such investigation at the school and the 16th at a high school in the San Diego Unified School District since 1983.