28 Suspected Drug Buyers Arrested in Lancaster Sting

Using pagers confiscated from alleged drug dealers, a roving narcotics team set up a sting operation and arrested 28 suspected drug buyers in a Lancaster drug sweep Friday.

The busts were the culmination of a six-week investigation of a suspected drug ring based in Panorama City, Lt. Richard DeWitt of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

The Sheriff’s Department is a participant in the Community Oriented Multi-Agency Narcotics Enforcement Team, a squad of law enforcement officers and county prosecutors funded by a $1.5-million state grant.

On Thursday the team arrested five suspected drug dealers in a Panorama City apartment and used their pagers Friday to respond to heroin customers in Lancaster, where the dealers typically peddled their drugs, authorities said.

“Every day, seven days a week, these people from Panorama City would load up their cars with the dope and then they’d come over here to the Antelope Valley to sell it,” DeWitt said.

The law enforcement team dispatched a pair of undercover officers, laden with plastic bags of chopped-up Tootsie Rolls meant to resemble heroin, to meet the customers, authorities said.

After the phony drugs exchanged hands, other officers moved in to arrest the buyers, DeWitt said.

“It all goes down in about 30 seconds,” he said. “This was a very successful operation for us.”