Teen Arrested in Sale of Drugs to Youngsters

A teenager suspected of selling drugs to children as young as 10 years old was arrested following a monthlong investigation, sheriff’s deputies said Sunday.

The 17-year-old suspect, whose identity was not released because of his age, was arrested Saturday night at Montrose Community Park in Glendale, said Sgt. Randal Stover, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Narcotics Bureau officer assigned to the Crescenta Valley station.

The youth, who police said cruised for customers in his parents’ black BMW, had small quantities of LSD and marijuana in his possession at the time of his arrest, Stover said. An additional $1,000 worth of LSD was found at the youth’s residence near West Hollywood.

Stover said the teen, who lives with his parents, was bringing LSD into the Glendale, Montrose and La Canada areas. Sheriff’s deputies were alerted to his alleged activities by school district officials and residents.

Stover said that in standard dealer fashion, the teen was at first supplying drugs to the children at no cost, then charging them once they got hooked.

“He wasn’t a large-scale narcotics trafficker, but my estimation is he was trying to line up a young base [of users],” Stover said, noting that he was targeting children ages 10 to 13.

For the past month, deputies have conducted surveillance operations in hopes of recording the youth’s drug-dealing activities.

On Saturday the teen was arrested for possession of LSD and marijuana for sale and transporting dangerous drugs for sale, Stover said. Because he did not have a prior juvenile record, he was released to his parents pending arraignment. The youth, a Costa Rican national whose parents own a travel agency here, had his visa confiscated, Stover said.

Stover said the Sheriff’s Department had made the teen’s arrest a high priority “because adolescents as young as 10 years of age were being sought out by this dealer for the purpose of getting them hooked on LSD.

“We spent a lot of time on it,” he said. “Our investigation is continuing to see what his source is and if there’s anyone else involved in this.”