ANAHEIM : Sweep at Apartment Results in 27 Arrests

Police raided a westside apartment complex this week and arrested 27 people from 17 units primarily on charges of selling cocaine and methamphetamine from their residences, officers said Friday.

During Thursday’s raid of the El Fortin Garden Apartments at 201 S. Magnolia Ave., six people were arrested on charges of selling drugs, 15 on suspicion of possession of drugs with the intent to sell, two on charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, two on charges of parole violations, one on a charge of auto theft and one was charged with forgery, officers said.

The complex has been a source of neighborhood complaints about drug dealing, officers said.

“We want to send a message to the people of the complex that we are going to aggressively fight any criminal activity that occurs there,” said Lt. Stephen.

H. Sain, head of the vice/narcotics bureau. “We are going to take back the complex.”

The building’s owner, Lyman David Wright, 44, of Laguna Beach, refused to comment at length Friday.

“I don’t want any bad publicity,” he said.

One of the problems, Sain said, is that the residents allow relatives to take a room in order to pay the rent.

“A lot of the problems are not caused by the people who live there,” Sain said. “Sometimes the problems are caused by people who just stayed over the night before. In many of the cases, the tenant is a single mother who is letting a cousin take a room, and it is the cousin who is committing the crimes.”