100 Police Raid Apartments for Drugs; 25 Held

About 100 police officers staged a lightning-fast raid on an apartment complex believed to be a major drug marketplace for dealers and buyers Friday, leading to the arrests of 25 suspects.

Acting on complaints from tenants and neighbors of the Regency Manor Apartments in the 12000 block of Buaro Street, police raided six apartments and confiscated several ounces of powder believed to be cocaine and heroin, as well as weapons and cash, said Sgt. Bump Willis of the Garden Grove police special investigation unit.

“It’s not an organized ring we’re breaking,” Willis said. “The amounts (of drugs) are small, but the street-level purchases have grown to such a magnitude that you cannot go through the apartment without at least 10 or 15 people coming up to you wanting to sell drugs.”

The raid began at 3 p.m., when two trucks pulled into the complex’s parking lot. Drug officers and other police--some masked--stormed out of the trucks and headed for the apartments. The raid was over within an hour.

The 25 people arrested were held on suspicion of possession of drugs with intent to sell.

Police said the investigation is continuing, with more arrests expected.

In one apartment, officers said they found tenants allegedly packaging cocaine. On a wooden table, not far from an opened Bible, were four plastic bags, each containing one-eighth of a gram of white powder, said officers, who also found a gram scale and more white powder elsewhere in the apartment. The powder is being analyzed.

From the waistband of a woman in the apartment, police confiscated $1,286 in cash wrapped in food stamps.

According to Willis, detectives worked undercover at the apartment for more than two weeks before Friday’s raid. They observed many sales that sometimes involved “runners as young as 10,” he said, and watched dealers approach prospective buyers on foot, on bicycles and in cars.

“The fact that we could come here and in two nights buy 34 packages (of alleged cocaine) in a matter of hours speaks for itself as to the activities at this place,” he said.

Tenants who witnessed Friday’s raid agreed that drug deals are commonplace in the complex.

“This is nothing,” said Lucia Romero, 37, as she watched officers search an apartment across from hers. “Everybody is selling things here.”

Police had not immediately determined the total amount of drugs or cash confiscated Friday.

In addition to the police investigation, Regency Manor recently came under the scrutiny of city officials. Last month, the Garden Grove city attorney filed 685 criminal misdemeanor charges against its owner, Khosro Khaloghli, 52, of Newport Beach, which cited him for maintaining substandard housing.

City officials have granted Khaloghli a grace period, during which he has agreed to repair his property.