Drug Probe at School Yields 6 Arrests : Investigation: Undercover officer posing as a student at Sonora High in La Habra helps net suspects, who are accused of selling marijuana or methamphetamines.

By KEN ELLINGWOOD

Dec. 7, 1994 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LA HABRA —

The new student was surly and unmotivated, ditching classes at Sonora High School and quickly falling in with other students who might have access to drugs.

On Tuesday, four of those friends were arrested on charges that they had sold small quantities of marijuana or methamphetamines to that rebellious transfer student, who actually was an undercover cop.

A fifth Sonora High student was suspended, and an arrest warrant was issued for a sixth. In addition, two La Habra men were arrested Tuesday in the case, police said. All are suspected of selling small amounts of drugs.

Police acknowledged that the number of arrests from the three-month undercover investigation was about half what they had expected.

“I truly expected the number to be a double-digit,” said Capt. John Rees, whose daughter is a senior at the school. “I’m not disappointed at all. I just think the problem, fortunately, isn’t as big as it was perceived.”

But police and school officials said the targeted students, three of whom were arrested on campus after being called out of class, make up the core of a limited campus drug market. The undercover officer was able to buy marijuana and methamphetamines but could not find the most powerful drugs: cocaine, LSD and heroin, Rees said.

“I would say based on the evidence just gained, it’s minimal,” said Cindy Ranii, principal of the 1,389-student school. “But we know there’s availability and use in this community.”

The undercover officer, who was temporarily assigned to La Habra from another Orange County police agency, hung out with students and learned favored sites to buy and use drugs, Rees said.

The officer, whose real identity was known on campus only to Ranii, acted the role of a troubled teen so convincingly that teachers and counselors kept offering their help, Ranii said. Rees placed the officer’s real age in the mid-20s.