20 tons of cocaine in raid of Los Angeles warehouse (1989)

[Ol’Otis]

damn the more research on 1980s Los Angeles the more i become

Agents Seize 20 Tons of Cocaine In Raid on Los Angeles Warehouse

Breaking a $6 padlock on an unguarded warehouse in the San Fernando Valley, drug agents seized a cache of at least 20 tons of cocaine and more than $10 million in cash today in what they said was the biggest drug haul in history.

Officials linked the drugs, whose wholesale value they estimated at $2 billion or more, with drug gangs operating out of Medellin and Cali in Colombia. They said three men were arrested and one was being sought.

The warehouse is on a mostly residential street in Sylmar, Calif., one of several individual communities within Los Angeles. The raid was a response to a tip two days ago from a resident of Sylmar who reported frequent traffic in big trucks, said officials of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration. As Big as 2 School Buses

The agents said the drugs were found in bricks wrapped in plastic inside brown cardboard boxes. Some boxes were hidden in false panels of an unmarked white truck trailer that was parked outside the warehouse, said John M. Zienter, the Federal agency's special agent in charge of the operation.

 

[Ol’Otis]

The confiscation far surpassed the record of 11 tons, in March 1984. in Tranquilandia, Colombia. The previous record in the United States was 8,700 pounds in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in November 1987, said Frank Shults, director of public information for the drug agency.

Officials said the confiscation underscored the growing importance of Los Angeles as a drug trade center. It supplies perhaps half the nation's cocaine, 80 percent of its PCP, or ''angel dust,'' and much of its methamphetamines, according to a report last month by the United States Attorney General's office.

Ralph B. Lochridge, a spokesman for the drug agency, said the seizure should put to rest any doubt ''that Los Angeles is in fact the major pathway for cocaine entering the country.'' In March, this city was the hub of the biggest scheme for laundering drug money to be uncovered, a $1.2 billion operation. El Paso as a Possibility


Mr. Reiner said the drugs seized today might have been smuggled from Mexico at El Paso. The 60-foot truck trailer was packed with garish plaster statues and other cheap gewgaws from Mexico.

Detailed records confiscated in the warehouse led to the arrests of three men who identified themselves as Mexicans. They were arrested in hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, Mr. Reiner said. He called the suspects ''as high as they get unless you go to Colombia.'' The three were not immediately identified.

Mr. Lochridge said the $2 billion estimate for the value of the drugs was conservative and based on a price of $100 per gram for pure cocaine. Using a police estimate of $170,250 per pound for diluted cocaine, the street price of the seizure would be close to $7 billion. 'Cold Chills,' an Agent Says

The warehouse contained more cocaine than the total seized in Los Angeles lall ast year. ''After 25 years in this business I never thought anything would impact on me,'' said Mr. Zienter, ''but it really gave me cold chills when I walked in and saw how much there was.''

Yet Mr. Reiner said that given the volume of the drug trade, the contents of the warehouse were, in the eyes of the dealers, ''no big deal,'' and ''there is so much traffic in this cocaine that it's stored in a warehouse with a $6 lock.''

Officials said the agents found no guards posted by the drug dealers and no firearms.

Deputy Police Chief Glenn Levant said the raid at the warehouse, which had been rented to the same tenants for at least two years, followed a tip from a ''concerned citizen.'' A D.E.A. official in Washington said steady heavy truck traffic, which the informer had mentioned, was a sign of drug trafficking. Drug Role of Los Angeles

Los Angeles's growing role as a hub for narcotics distribution around the nation was highlighted in the report by the United States Attorney General's office, released Aug. 3, Operations have shifted here since a Federal task force to combat drugs in Miami was established in 1982, the report said. Since then, it added, ''vast amounts'' of cocaine have been smuggled from Mexico to Los Angeles in motor vehicles, on boats and on small planes that can land on more than 100 clandestine airstrips.

 

[Ol’Otis]

The researchers reported that more than 10,000 gang members are actively involved in the drug trade in Los Angeles and that gangsters from Los Angeles have been found selling crack in 47 other cities.

Narcotics agents reported the seizing of more than $100 million in cash in Los Angeles in 1988, the first time more drug money was confiscated here than in Miami. They said 15 tons of cocaine was seized in Los Angeles all of last year, about half the amount seized in Miami. Seizures Are Explained

When drugs are seized, representative samples are taken to identify them and defense lawyers are allowed to view the entire seizure, said Philip J. Hartman, divisional training coordinator for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles.

Under standard procedure, he said, the seized narcotics are then burned in a D.E.A. laboratory. But he said that with a seizure as large as this one, he was not certain how the drugs could easily be destroyed.

 

[Tenchi Ryu]

Tons...


Tons


20 Tons of cocaine

Jesus christ

 

[Ol’Otis]

@Serious @Supreme Clientele @10bandz i did a thread on the violence rate
in Los Angeles during '90-'92 i wonder was this one of the causes or the main cause

 

[Ol’Otis]

Tons...


Tons


20 Tons of cocaine

Jesus christ

you know somebody got chipped


Juan done fukked up

 

[Ya' Cousin Cleon]

was just in LA in December, and all the empty space and buildings out that way doesn't surprise me.

 

[zayk35]

Heads rolled off this one...you can bet that....1989 was my daddy's biggest yr too I seen and counted with my 11 yr old hands and eyes over 300k on the table that Spring Break....best and worst of times...he went to jail in March of 1990 and shyt was never the same as my first decade

 

[Tenchi Ryu]

you know somebody got chipped


Juan done fukked up

shyt that's the whole damn empire, somebody head had to get chopped

 

[Ol’Otis]

Heads rolled off this one...you can bet that.

somebody head had to get chopped

somebody called in with a tip

 

[Arithmetic]

Colombians

 

[Ol’Otis]

Colombians

you know they came thru south central mad as fukk

 

[Dwolf]

Gotta use the scale they weigh the whales with

 

[cheek100]

80s coca

 

[Ol’Otis]

Gotta use the scale they weigh the whales with