U.S. to Prosecute 3 Drug Cases in Problem Neighborhood : Crime: U.S. attorney’s office agrees to take on the small cases from Santa Ana’s Willard area as a strong show of support for local anti-drug efforts.

In a strong show of support for local anti-drug efforts, the U.S. attorney’s office has agreed to prosecute three cases in the notorious Willard neighborhood involving quantities of drugs too small to normally attract federal interest, officials said Monday.

The cases mark the first time that the U.S. attorney’s central district--a seven-county region from Orange County to Santa Barbara--has accepted cases involving amounts that fall below federal guidelines, said Paul Seave, head of the office’s Santa Ana branch.

Federal prosecutors usually only take cases involving more than 500 grams of cocaine, 50 grams of “crack” or 100 grams of heroin. But Seave said his office decided to bend these standards in Santa Ana because it was so impressed by the efforts of local community members to eliminate drugs in the troubled Willard neighborhood.

“To my knowledge, this kind of (federal) assistance that we are talking about here has not been done before,” Seave said. “And to my knowledge, no community has reacted the way Santa Ana has. . . . Santa Ana is doing a full-court press on this.”

The Willard neighborhood is considered one of the city’s worst drug havens. Because federal prosecution can carry mandatory minimum prison sentences, the federal government’s involvement there adds a potent weapon to the arsenal already employed by local officials in fighting the problem, officials said.

The three cases to be filed are still under review, and details could not be discussed publicly, Seave said. But a news conference on the cases has been scheduled for next week.

Offering a hypothetical example, Seave said a drug dealer who sold 125 grams of cocaine, carried a gun and did not have a previous criminal record would normally face about 180 days in jail. But if prosecuted by the federal government, Seave said, that same person could be sentenced to seven years in prison.

“We are real happy about that,” City Councilman Robert L. Richardson said, “because successful prosecution will result in a sentence that will send someone away for many years, versus 180 days. Even drug dealers can add.”

Seave said: “The message to the people who make their living selling drugs is that the risk of selling drugs has just gone up dramatically.”

Plagued by drugs, crime, residential overcrowding and neighborhood deterioration, community leaders joined forces last spring to retake control of the Willard neighborhood, which is bounded by Civic Center Drive and 17th, Sycamore and Flower streets.

Willard Intermediate School officials and parents were particularly alarmed at the high rate of drug sales occurring within sight of the school yard. Together with support from the school and the YWCA, a neighborhood association was formed, the city stepped up code enforcement efforts and the Police Department increased patrols and arrests throughout the area.

But because of a lack of jail space and lax sentencing under state law, city officials also sought help from the U.S. attorney’s office.

Santa Ana Police Lt. Collie Provence, who supervises the district that includes the Willard neighborhood, said: “The Police Department is hoping that this sends a very clear message, not only into that neighborhood, but throughout the rest of the community, that we are not going to tolerate drug dealing around our schools or near any other location.”

Richardson said the city is preparing to erect signs near the school warning of the stiffer federal penalties.

Drug dealers “will figure out pretty quickly (the difference) between doing their stuff there and going somewhere else,” the councilman said. “The feds have room in their jail.”