UNDERCOVER OPERATION FINDS DEALERS IN SCHOOLS

Undercover LAPD officers purchased narcotics 227 times and arrested 136
dealers in Los Angeles public schools during a yearlong sting, Chief
Bernard C. Parks said Friday.

The undercover officers who posed as students said Friday they were shocked
to discover that youths openly sold drugs inside classrooms and used drugs
throughout school campuses.

"As far as narcotics go, it's pretty bad," said Los Angeles Police
Department Officer Jason Azpeitia, 26. "You walk into a restroom and see
two to three kids smoking out in a stall from a marijuana pipe or joint.

"You go to little hidden spots on campus and they are smoking out or using
drugs. I thought it was pretty bad the way high school kids are using
narcotics now days. It's everybody using narcotics."

Officer San Miguel Arana, 26, said most of the classrooms are very crowded
and only have one instructor, so it's easy for dealers to sell drugs in class.

"Out of the percentage of students I busted, about 40 percent of the
transactions occurred in the classroom," Arana said. "When an instructor is
teaching a course, you'd be in the back making a transaction."

Since 1974, undercover officers in the LAPD School Investigation Buy Unit
have made thousands of narcotic purchases and arrested more than 8,400 drug
dealers on campuses, seizing $8 million in narcotics.

From Jan. 2 to Dec. 14 last year, undercover officers made 227 narcotic
purchases from 162 different dealers and arrested 136 of those dealers.

Police are working to apprehend the remaining 26 dealers, among them both
students and nonstudents.

Police declined to say at what schools the arrests took place, but said
campuses in the San Fernando Valley were involved.

"Most of the dealers operated freely in select high schools and would not
have been discovered through other types of police investigations," Parks said.

Marijuana remains the most prevalent drug among high school students.
However, cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, methamphetamine, hallucinogenic mushrooms,
and prescription drugs like Adderall and Vicodin were also purchased by
undercover officers.

As a result of the notoriety of the program, LAPD Juvenile Division Capt.
Charlie Beck said it's much more difficult for students to buy drugs on
campus now than it was when the program started in 1974.

Willie Crittendon, LAUSD director of secondary education and support
services, said the district has a tremendous partnership with the Police
Department.

"This program has been a tremendous deterrent in ridding drugs from our
campuses," he said. "We hope to continue this partnership with the LAPD
and, hopefully, do a much better job of getting rid of drugs on our streets
and in our campuses."

LAPD Officer Dolores Martinez, 25, said she began her one-semester
assignment by driving by the school and noticing the type of clothes youths
were wearing.

"You see what kids are wearing and stuff and go out and buy some little
teeny-bopper clothes and do your best," she said. "You have to act as a
child -- at their level. Honestly, I would come back after school and pop a
bottle of Advil just from the headache from being in class."

Once as part of an investigation, Martinez followed some youths between
classes and got in trouble with school officials.

"I never ditched when I was in school, honest. I was trying to catch these
kids in between periods, and I got caught. I got sent to a room where they
send all the kids.

"It cost me overtime for detention," Beck joked.

Arana said he never used the drugs youths offered him.

"It's a facade we play," he said. "It's part of our training. We just talk
our way out of it. These kids, if you give them an excuse, will believe it."