4 Men Held in Illegal Dumping at City Yard

Los Angeles officials have expressed surprise at the scale of an illegal dumping business allegedly run by four men, including two city workers, that was uncovered last week at a municipal yard.

“The sheer magnitude of it was totally unexpected,” said William A. Robertson, director of the Bureau of Street Services. “It blows me away.”

Authorities arrested the suspects Wednesday night as they allegedly took money from the drivers of about 20 private dump trucks that lined up after hours to dispose of construction and other debris at a Street Services maintenance yard. The four allegedly charged $60 to $100 a load.

“That’s pretty repulsive, when basically you rip off your employer,” said Capt. Michael Chambers, head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s commercial crime division.

Booked on suspicion of felony grand theft were Adebola Kannike, 44, of Norwalk; Manuel Crawford, 40, of Fontana; Jose Sanchez, 50, of La Puente; and Arthur Barton, 57, whose hometown was not given. Bail was set at $20,000 each.

Kannike is a city tree surgeon who has been with Street Services for 16 years, and Crawford is an asphalt worker employed there for nine years. Sanchez was an emergency cleanup crew member who recently left the bureau after 26 years, Robertson said. The city will seek to fire Kannike and Crawford, Robertson said, adding, “If you do this kind of thing, you’re history.”

Authorities were still trying to determine how long the dumping had been going on. But Chambers said detectives believe that it was a regular after-hours activity.

Officers went to the site -- 5860 S. Wilton Place in South Los Angeles -- on a tip Wednesday. They expected to conduct surveillance and maybe find a few trucks, Chambers said.

“It was so blatant, we had no choice but to take action,” he said. “It wasn’t like they were trying to hide what they were doing.”

LAPD crime lab specialists were called immediately to determine whether the dumping included hazardous materials such as medical waste or asbestos, whose disposal is costly and heavily regulated.

“That’s definitely a concern,” Chambers said, adding that no findings were available yet.

According to Robertson, the loads appeared to be mostly construction debris and landscape clippings. The yard temporarily stores waste picked up by city street sweepers and cleanup trucks until larger trucks can haul it to a landfill.

The four suspects might have entered the locked and fenced yard with the help of pass codes used by employees, Robertson said. The haulers’ vehicles ranged from 1-ton pickups to 20-foot trucks, Chambers said.

He said detectives and the district attorney’s office would discuss whether to file civil or criminal cases against the suspects, alleging illegal dumping on city property.

“It’s not identified as a landfill,” Robertson said. “Even when I take a load to the local dump, they weigh it and give me a receipt. There were no receipts that I’m aware of, and no weighing going on.”

He estimated that some of the loads would have cost more than $300 each to dispose of legally. The Sunshine Canyon Landfill near Sylmar charges $42 per ton, and the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley charges $45 per ton.