California Bureau Of Narcotic Enforcement

When police investigators served a search warrant at a Santa Ana trailer park recently, they found more than a methamphetamine lab. Behind a sheet that doubled as a curtain, under the dining room table, they found four sleeping children. Under a pilot program started in Orange County three years ago and now being copied "It's a holistic view of law enforcement," said Walter Allen, special agent of the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Lake Los Angeles, a high-desert community at the northeast edge of Los Angeles County, has no lake, one traffic signal and two markets. And at least 33 illegal meth labs have been shut down in the almost three years since a task force of sheriff's deputies and state narcotics agents started targeting the area. With about 14,000 residents in less than 150 square miles, Lake Los Angeles represents about 3% of the Antelope Valley in area and population.

Although a veteran law enforcement officer was prosecuted for the crime, authorities have steadfastly refused to clear a civilian property clerk as a suspect in the theft of 650 pounds of cocaine from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement office in Riverside.

When police investigators served a search warrant at a Santa Ana trailer park recently, they found more than a methamphetamine lab. Behind a sheet that doubled as a curtain, under the dining room table, they found four sleeping children. Under a pilot program started in Orange County three years ago and now being copied "It's a holistic view of law enforcement," said Walter Allen, special agent of the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Lake Los Angeles, a high-desert community at the northeast edge of Los Angeles County, has no lake, one traffic signal and two markets. And at least 33 illegal meth labs have been shut down in the almost three years since a task force of sheriff's deputies and state narcotics agents started targeting the area. With about 14,000 residents in less than 150 square miles, Lake Los Angeles represents about 3% of the Antelope Valley in area and population.

In Tijuana, schoolchildren get lessons on how to duck during gangland shootouts. Ciudad Juarez cops patrol with military escorts, and the morgue there is spilling over with gunshot victims. But here in Mexicali, people fear the desert sun more than drug hit men. The city of 700,000 has a homicide rate comparable to that of Wichita, Kan., and one of the biggest police deployments is Operation Beat the Heat, in which officers haul blocks of ice to shantytown residents. There hasn't been a bank robbery in Mexicali in 18 months, or a reported kidnapping in a year.

A record $1.9 million worth of anabolic steroids were seized in San Diego on Friday by state and federal investigators, who arrested a German man suspected of running an international drug-smuggling ring, authorities said. Beric Schwarzhaupt of Hanau, Germany, was arrested for allegedly importing and distributing anabolic steroids, following a six-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, authorities said.

A two-year Tehama County methamphetamine investigation has taken out a major arm of a Mexican drug ring with connections throughout California, state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement officials said. Jack Nehr, the bureau's special agent in charge, said the drug ring was a Mexican national organization that moved to the northern part of the state from Southern California. In such drug rings, instructions and profits flow in and out of Mexico, he said.

Jurors deliberating drug trafficking charges against a former state narcotics agent and two co-defendants told a Los Angeles federal judge Thursday that they have been unable to reach verdicts after six days of deliberations. Only one member of the panel expressed any confidence that the deadlock could be broken when queried by U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder.

Five people were arrested in a predawn raid Saturday at an Anaheim home, where narcotics officers found a methamphetamine lab in the garage, according to a police spokesman. Officers received a tip last week that a drug lab was being set up in the residence in the 1200 block of Topaz Avenue, according to a police report. Anaheim officers obtained a search warrant and conducted an early morning raid, assisted by agents from the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

Although a veteran law enforcement officer was prosecuted for the crime, authorities have steadfastly refused to clear a civilian property clerk as a suspect in the theft of 650 pounds of cocaine from the state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement office in Riverside.

The annual marijuana eradication campaign hit a new record this summer, uprooting 4.4 million plants, a 52% increase over last summer, state and federal officials plan to announce today. "The number of marijuana plants eradicated has increased due to the number of plants being cultivated and law enforcement's ability to detect and access the remote areas where the plants are grown," said Michelle Gregory of the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement. The program has increased its seizures since 1996, when voters approved the use of medical marijuana.

Re "Reckless Rx in the desert?" July 29 How does a physician subscribing to "first do no harm" find himself or herself prescribing either drugs that are inherently harmful or drugs at hazardous levels? The answer is not complex. "Follow the money" is all one needs to do. Tom Pula Sunland -- I am not surprised at addicted doctors, greedy pharmacists or enabling administrators.