Officer Slaying Underlines Growing Risk in Drug War

Thursday’s bloody ambush of a Fullerton undercover police officer underscores the increasing potential for violence facing drug investigators and the wide-ranging, sometimes nomadic nature of narcotics dealers who cross city borders to do business.

Officer Tommy De La Rosa, 43, was fatally wounded by drug dealers at a modest stucco home where he went to deliver what he promised would be a 200-kilogram shipment of cocaine. Before he died, De La Rosa shot and killed one suspect, and police later arrested 13 others with suspected ties to the drug ring.

Investigators said Friday that the gunmen apparently wanted to steal the cocaine and did not know that De La Rosa was participating in a reverse sting operation during which the suspects were ostensibly to buy $4 million worth of cocaine.

Authorities say De La Rosa’s death illustrates the danger of undercover narcotics agents who regularly confront heavily armed drug dealers who think nothing of preying upon each other to steal narcotics or money.

“The level of violence is on an upward spiral,” said Special Agent Ralph Lockridge, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles. “It’s hard to recall a case when we dealt with drug traffickers who weren’t armed. It’s just part of the game now.”

National statistics indicate that DEA agents are involved in two gun battles a week on average. Lockridge said assaults, stabbings and beatings of federal narcotics officers occur almost daily across the country.

In one of the worst incidents, two DEA agents were killed and a third wounded in February, 1988, during an undercover operation in a posh Pasadena neighborhood. The prospective drug sellers opened fire on the officers as they negotiated a $90,000 heroin deal. Return fire killed two suspects and four others were arrested. Authorities said the slain agents, George M. Montoya, 34, and Paul Seema, 52, and the wounded officer, Jose Martinez, 25, were victims of “an obvious murder-theft” setup to steal money for the drug-buy.

In Orange County, 29 officers have died in the line of duty, but De La Rosa is the only one killed by gunfire during a drug operation, according to statistics compiled by the Sheriff’s Department. Two other officers, Sheriff’s Deputy Mark S. Tonkin, 31, and Anaheim Police Officer Gary A. Nelson, 35, were killed in helicopter accidents while participating in drug-related surveillances.

Santa Ana police say that they have been shot at during several narcotics investigations and that at least two Santa Ana drug agents have been wounded by gunfire in slightly more than a decade.

Narcotics investigators for the Sheriff’s Department estimate that about 80% of the narcotics dealers they investigate are armed with knives, pistols, shotguns, semiautomatic or automatic weapons. On a few occasions, they say, they have seen booby traps.

“It has been something that has been gaining momentum for several years,” Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said. “People who would never have thought to arm themselves 15 years ago, such as marijuana dealers, are obtaining weapons.”

Although many drug dealers carry weapons, what has changed, authorities say, is their willingness to pull the trigger to protect their cash and drugs or to steal the same from other traffickers. Sometimes, drug agents like De La Rosa get caught in the middle.

Anaheim Police Lt. Vince Howard, head of the city’s narcotics bureau, said that during his long tenure as a drug investigator he has heard about numerous narcotics rip-offs from traffickers who claim to have been victimized.

“You hear about this regularly. They have been ripping each other off for years,” Lockridge said. “That’s what makes it such a dirty, dangerous game. No one trusts anyone. And that’s what makes it such a high-risk occupation for undercover agents.”

Lockridge warned that violence in the drug trade could increase as supplies of cocaine and other narcotics are curtailed in the nation’s war on drugs. He quoted national drug policy director William J. Bennett as saying “the dogs will be fighting over fewer bones.”

“The risks are always there,” said Fullerton Police Chief Philip Goehring. “How much will a man kill a man over? Four million dollars or $4? I have seen a man killed over a burrito. . . . At a small moment in time, Officer De La Rosa was on his own, and it was at that very moment when this (his death) transpired.”

De La Rosa, a father of four, was killed during a multiagency operation that had targeted an Orange County cocaine ring with activities extending into the Los Angeles area. Joining Fullerton police were Anaheim, Brea, Cypress, La Habra and Placentia officers.

The task force is not unlike a growing number of cooperative arrangements set up by law enforcement agencies to combat increasingly sophisticated drug traffickers, whose operations transcend municipal, county and state boundaries.

Over the last decade, police departments have created more units with regional responsibilities. The squads have been encouraged by the changing nature of the drug trade and federal asset-seizure laws passed in 1984, which allow law enforcement agencies to seize drugs, money and property from suspected narcotics dealers without having to convict them of crimes.

In Orange County, local, state and federal law enforcement agencies banded together in the mid-1980s to form the Regional Narcotics Suppression Program under the command of a Sheriff’s Department captain. The pool of narcotics investigators from at least 18 departments handles major investigations and asset-seizure cases throughout Orange County and Southern California.

Statistics show that during its first four years of operation, RNSP officers have seized at least 9,500 pounds of cocaine, 2,228 pounds of marijuana and $45 million in assets from drug traffickers. The FBI has described the unit as one of the most effective of its kind in the nation.

“Unless you are a large enough department, you cannot always handle major cases on your own,” said Helton of the Santa Ana police. “Here in Orange County, if you have a large narcotics deal, it would not be uncommon to solicit the aid of other cities.”

On a smaller scale, but with the same approach in mind, individual law enforcement agencies have been pursuing narcotics suspects beyond their city borders with increasing regularity.

Brea police were among the first in Southern California to recognize the need for cooperation and the potential of federal asset-seizure laws that allow local police to claim as much as 90% of the cash and assets confiscated in criminal investigations.

In 1984, Brea formed a special enforcement division, and one of the officers began using a seized red Corvette to help him infiltrate drug rings throughout the region.

Although Brea is in Orange County, the unit often worked with a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department drug squad based in Whittier. Brea officers helped on tedious stakeouts and followed suspects, whether they headed for the San Fernando Valley or Las Vegas. It has paid off. The department has received its share of more than $4 million from seized cash and assets.

In still another example of cooperation, four small police departments in Maywood, Bell-Cudahy, South Gate and Huntington Park formed the Southeast Area Narcotics Enforcement Team two years ago. The cities had so few resources--Maywood had only 25 sworn officers at the time--that they could hardly make a dent in the local narcotics problem on their own.

Although the 10 SEANET officers still arrest pushers at local parks and raid rock houses, they periodically have helped DEA agents investigate truckers suspected of transporting narcotics.

* WHAT WENT WRONG

Fullerton police explain how officer made a fatal mistake. B1