‘Operation Save Skid Row’ targets more than two dozen suspected drug dealers in notorious downtown Los Angeles neighborhood

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES (KABC) — Federal law enforcement officials, along with the Los Angeles Police Department, are targeting drug trafficking in downtown Los Angeles with “Operation Save Skid Row.”

Authorities announced that a total of 28 people will be charged with drug offenses in connection with the takedown.

Local law enforcement, working with the FBI, DEA and even the IRS, executed 44 search warrants in Los Angeles County on Thursday, arresting 21 people so far for alleged drug distribution.

According to LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, 15 search warrants were executed across the city, including nine in Skid Row, as well as others in Pasadena, West Covina, Simi Valley and more.

ABC7 On Your Side Investigates was on the scene of one of the search warrants, where federal agents entered a Pasadena home around 5 a.m. After the FBI ordered the people inside the home to come out, they flew a drone inside before agents intervened and began their search. The suspect was not home, but that did not stop the search.

About 100 law enforcement vehicles were part of the countywide operation, authorities said.

Thursday’s drug bust was centered at the intersection of Crocker Street and 5th Street in DTLA’s Skid Row neighborhood, which officials describe as being known for “poverty, homelessness and drug use.”

Law enforcement says several tents are set up in the area solely for drug sales. Several gang members are believed to be among those charged, including members of the Main Street Crips, the Grape Street/Raymond Avenue Crips and the Pueblo Bishop Bloods.

ABC7 On Your Side Investigates watched as federal agents with search warrants took out drugs, wads of cash and even a gun from tents along Skid Row. McDonnell said drugs including methamphetamine and fentanyl were seized, along with crack cocaine, PCP and heroin.

“Many of the people arrested today do not live in the city of Los Angeles. They come here from outside our city, not to contribute to the community, but to exploit it,” McDonnell said. “They saw vulnerable people as currency, addiction as a business opportunity and our streets as a storefront.”

Many suspects are accused of disguising themselves as homeless people or social workers to blend in and evade law enforcement.

Authorities noted that the homeless were not targeted by the operation, but only drug traffickers, particularly those with “significant assets.”

Federal agents say the operation is part of an effort to crack down on the sale of fentanyl and PCP.

“We’re not going to have any more open-air drug markets in the United States, much less on Skid Row. And that’s why you see so many homeless people who are having psychotic episodes, who are sick, who are not seeking help, is because you have people, like the drug dealers that we are arresting today, who are keeping them addicted and taking public assistance money to pay for their drugs,” said First Assistant District Attorney United States, Bill Essayli.

“We’re here to try to stop and eliminate the flow of narcotics in and around Skid Row, correct? There are individuals preying on the vulnerable population here in Skid Row, and we are targeting those individuals for detention so that we can help the individuals, the citizens here, who are living on the streets of Skid Row,” said Patrick Grandy, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

McDonnell said Operation Save Skid Row is the culmination of more than six months of shared investigative work, intelligence gathering and planning.

Thursday’s operation closely resembles an attack earlier this year at MacArthur Park. Federal law enforcement officials said 24 people were arrested in the operation.

Operation Save Skid Row was described as a “next step” after the MacArthur Park arrests.

This is a breaking report. Come back to this page for updates.

SEE ALSO: 18 people arrested, 40 pounds of fentanyl seized in drug raid in MacArthur Park, Calabasas, San Gabriel