Police seize 32 pounds of opium

GLENDALE — Four people, including two Glendale residents, were arrested Tuesday night in connection with a drug ring after undercover police discovered that a 32 1/2 -pound shipment of opium stashed in a metal tin was sent to an apartment in the city from Armenia, officials said.

Lusine Khachatryan, 27, of Glendale; Razmik Alchian, 37, of Glendale; Edmond Bolandi, 37, of Palmdale; and Ali Nouri, 35, of Reseda, were taken into custody just after 8 p.m. Tuesday and booked at the Glendale Police Department jail on suspicion of sales and transportation of drugs, said Lt. Bruce Fox of the Special Investigations Bureau. The drug shipment, which has a street value of $500,000, was likely going to be parceled into smaller amounts to be sold to local residents, Fox said.

“We have had a recent problem arising with heroin and opium,” he said. “It’s growing popularity just in the last year or two.”

The U.S. Department of Immigration, Customs and Enforcement became suspicious of the package when they found it in Memphis, Tenn., at a Fed-Ex receiving center and discovered the drugs, said Steven Lovett, assistant special agent in charge of the department in Los Angeles.

Most smugglers, especially those who run large operations, generally know that at least one package of many that they ship out will be seized, he said.

“They are just hoping their package gets lost in the mix and gets through,” Lovett said.

Federal agents notified Glendale police that the package had been shipped from Yerevan and was headed to a Glendale apartment on Orange Grove Avenue, Fox said.

A federal agent and Glendale undercover officers, who disguised themselves as mail carriers, went to the apartment Tuesday to deliver the package and a woman signed for it and took it from the officers, Fox said.

Police staked out the apartment to see whether anyone inside was going to transport the shipment, which was concealed inside a large metal tin that was possibly a car part, he said.

Two men exited the house, got into a car and began driving away when police stopped them, seized the drugs and arrested them, Fox said. Police got a warrant to search the apartment and found packaging material similar to Tuesday’s shipment and receipts of other drug loads that the residents received, which Fox said indicated that they had been transporting and selling drugs for a while.

“It’s a drug ring,” he said.

Federal investigators will also be looking into whether Khachatryan, Alchian, Bolandi and Nouri were part of a larger-scale drug operation, Fox said.

Smugglers will hide drugs in almost anything, including stuffed animals or live animals, or swallow an illegal substance to carry it inside their bodies, Glendale Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.

“If there is a will to find a way to import illegal drugs into the United States, I don’t think there hasn’t been any method tried at least one time,” he said.

Tuesday’s opium seizure was the largest in the police department’s history, Fox said.

Two months ago, police seized 28 pounds of opium hidden in a woman’s pants after they discovered she and others had been selling the drugs in local neighborhoods, Fox said.

Police followed her into Burbank, where she was arrested, he said. They are still investigating the case, Fox said.

Heroin and opium is being sought after by teens, who may have tried it once at a party and got hooked, he said.

Opium can be mistaken for hashish, a concentrated form of cannabis, so teens, who think they’re smoking some type of marijuana, don’t know they’re doing harder drugs and get addicted, Fox said.

Heroin and opium users don’t need to shoot up the drugs with a needle, which has deterred many from using them, he said. They can smoke the opiates instead, Fox said.

Though heroin and opium users can be found throughout the city, the narcotics have mostly affected teens in North Glendale and La Crescenta, he said.

“It seems like it’s festering among young people,” Fox said.

The narcotics are so powerful and addictive that users generally need medical treatment or rehabilitation in order to quit, he said.

 VERONICA ROCHA covers public safety and the courts. She may be reached at (818) 637-3232 or by e-mail at veronica.rocha@latimes.com.