RAID TARGETS SKID ROW DRUGS

Police arrest eight for allegedly selling crack cocaine to homeless
buyers paying with coins or even food vouchers.

Los Angeles police raided a hotel Thursday on the outskirts of
Chinatown, arresting eight suspects in an alleged crack cocaine ring
that provided a stark look at how even homeless people with only
pennies to their name can fuel a burgeoning drug trade.

During the raid -- the first in the LAPD's new crackdown on the
downtown homeless district's crime and drug problem -- officers
reportedly discovered $130,000, including $700 in quarters, nickels,
dimes and even pesos that they believe homeless people amassed by
panhandling or stealing from parking meters. The money was used to
buy small hits of crack cocaine, they said.

Also seized were government food voucher cards that relief workers
distribute to the homeless, and state and parolee identification
cards, police said. Officials believe homeless addicts used the cards
as collateral to buy drugs on credit, redeeming the cards when their
monthly government checks arrived. Officers also confiscated computer
laptops and 40 cellphones that they said had been stolen to pay for drugs.

"We are tired of people bringing these types of drugs into a
community that is so vulnerable," said LAPD Capt. Andy Smith, whose
command includes the skid row area. "This is an organized pattern.
They are bringing the narcotics down here just to make money."

Police booked Damian Boss, 26, Sorena Gray, 42, Freddia Jones, 37,
and Cynthia Childress, 36, for alleged possession of rock cocaine for
sale. The other four suspects were not immediately identified. All
are part of an extended family, police said.

The arrests are part of a campaign by city and state leaders to clean
up an area that is home to the largest concentration of homeless
people in the western United States.

The department had considered a more radical plan to tear down skid
row's ubiquitous tent cities but, after a successful court challenge
by civil libertarians, decided to focus on crime, including drugs,
that Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton has blamed for
creating a "culture of lawlessness."

While the area's drug bazaars attract buyers citywide -- including
movie stars -- aid workers said they are particularly disturbed
because the drugs are peddled just feet from major drug treatment centers.

"When the checks come out early in the month, they can just walk out
onto the street and buy drugs," said Jim Howat, director of
Volunteers of America, a service that runs a housing and drug
rehabilitation program on skid row. "It's almost like a reinvestment period."

Smith, the LAPD captain, said pushers will "come down here late at
night, complete their transaction and then go back home. They are
selling the drugs as fast as people can hand them money."

According to police, LAPD Officers Jose Ferreira and Derrick Prude
spotted one of the suspects -- a man they said they recognized as
having had a previous felony warrant on a drug possession charge --
getting out of a taxicab near skid row about 2 a.m. Thursday.

The cabdriver told them he had picked up the fare at the Days Inn
Downtown, a hotel in the 700 block of North Main Street. Later,
Ferreira and Prude said, they found the suspect and seven other
family members -- four males and four females in all -- at the hotel
along with dozens of crack pipes, including some packaged as "two for
one" deals, with a small amount of cocaine included with the pipe.
Officers said they also seized six ounces of crack cocaine wrapped in
cellophane and packaged in soda cans and prescription medicine
bottles, a hatchet, a stun gun and knives.

Police believe the family moved from hotel to hotel, fleeing when
they thought authorities were closing in. They identified the mother
as the alleged ringleader and said she was saving the cash for a down
payment on a house. She was not identified.

"This is not something a street officer would see on a daily basis or
even a yearly basis," Ferreira said.

The suspects are expected to make their first court appearances next
week. Authorities said they were searching for a ninth person who may
be linked to the alleged drug operation.

Skid row, with 11,000 to 12,000 homeless living in the area bordered
by 3rd, 7th, Main and Alameda streets, accounts for up to 20% of all
drug crimes in Los Angeles. In December, undercover detectives posing
as drug dealers there arrested 14 potential drug buyers, including
Hollywood actor Brad Renfro.