Drug Arrests

Ike Turner, former husband of singer Tina Turner, was arrested Thursday night on suspicion of being under the influence of rock cocaine after running a stop sign in West Hollywood, sheriff's deputies said Friday. Deputies said an unloaded .38-caliber revolver was found in the car, along with an undisclosed amount of cocaine. Turner, of Los Angeles, was held in lieu of $10,000 bail. The 57-year-old musician, who has battled cocaine addiction since 1970, has had a long string of drug arrests.

The Supreme Court said Monday it would consider whether a strict immigration law called for deporting noncitizens convicted of repeat misdemeanor drug offenses. The case before the court involves a legal immigrant from Texas who pleaded guilty to possessing less than two ounces of marijuana and later pleaded guilty to possessing a single tablet of Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication. Although the convictions were minor, judges in some regions have ruled that two misdemeanor convictions for drug possession can count as an "aggravated felony," which is grounds for deportation.

The timing was fortuitous. Last spring, just as Avalon city officials began negotiating a new contract with the Sheriff's Department for law enforcement on Santa Catalina Island, the Avalon Awareness Council was turning its attention to a related issue. The council, a nonprofit citizens group, had collected signatures from nearly 600 of the island's 2,500 residents, asking for a community effort to address drug and alcohol abuse. The document was handed over to the City Council.

As a high-ranking U.S. anti-drug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held front-line posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara. While in Mexico, however, Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords, according to federal investigators. Cramer allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats.

More than 250 officers swept through Compton and nearby areas in a series of raids, arresting 15 alleged gang members accused of operating the most lucrative PCP ring in Southern California, authorities announced Thursday. Authorities served search warrants on 22 sites in 10 cities, rousting the alleged leader of the drug ring, Roderick Cardale Reed, from his bed at a residence in Rialto.

Culver City Police Chief John Montanio, accused of giving a city councilman's son special treatment during a traffic stop, signed a letter this year urging leniency for the same man in an earlier concealed weapon case. Montanio went to bat for Albert Vera Jr., 39, who received probation after pleading no contest to illegal possession of a handgun. The gun was discovered when the son of Culver City Councilman Albert Vera Sr. was arrested for petty theft last year.

Limelight Films seemed from the outside like so many upstart production companies in Hollywood: It had a Sunset Boulevard address, a connection to Tinseltown royalty and deals to distribute a small slate of low-budget films. But federal authorities have alleged that the film corporation was a front for an international drug-smuggling and money-laundering operation stretching from Los Angeles to Switzerland.

Charles Krauthammer's suggestion (Editorial Pages, Aug. 25) that yuppie drug users be arrested is an excellent idea! It may not help hard-core users, but the trauma of arrest, being booked, body-searched and fingerprinted might be enough to make occasional users think hard before repeating their folly. GIV CORNFIELD Malibu

Arrests for drug and alcohol violations rose on college and university campuses for a fifth consecutive year in 1996, but campus authorities argue that tougher enforcement rather than increased abuse was the likely reason, a survey released Saturday said. The Chronicle of Higher Education said alcohol arrests rose 10% and drug arrests 5%.

Los Angeles police arrested 162 suspected drug dealers, including 113 high school students, after they sold illegal drugs to undercover officers in several local schools, Chief Daryl F. Gates said Friday. The suspects, 107 juveniles and 55 adults, were taken into custody for investigation on a variety of drug trafficking offenses. The purchases included about six pounds of high-grade marijuana, valued at $14,472, and 12 grams of cocaine, worth $1,525.

In the early hours one Saturday last month, more than a dozen narcotic agents led by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department stormed into a cream stucco house in the city of Bell. Inside, agents said, they seized the components of a large meth lab capable of producing 20 pounds of the drug in a single batch. Two men were taken into custody and two children were placed under the care of the Department of Children and Family Services, authorities had said.

Prosecutors have charged Redmond O'Neal, the son of actors Ryan O'Neal and Farrah Fawcett, with felony drug possession in connection with his arrest over the weekend at Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic. His arraignment was postponed until April 24, when he is due to appear before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Graciela Freixes. O'Neal, 24, was charged Tuesday with a single count of possession of an illegal substance in a jail facility. The Los Angeles County district attorney's office alleges that O'Neal was found in possession of heroin during a routine security check Sunday morning in the parking lot of Pitchess Detention.

Mexican authorities on Thursday announced the capture of Vicente Carrillo Leyva, a suspected top leader of a family-run drug gang based in Ciudad Juarez and one of the country's most wanted figures. Federal law enforcement officials said Carrillo Leyva, the 32-year-old son of deceased drug kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, was arrested Wednesday while exercising in a wealthy neighborhood of Mexico City. The younger Carrillo was listed among the country's 24 most wanted drug suspects last week when the federal government offered $2-million rewards for each.

Rapper and actor Coolio was charged Tuesday with battery and possession of cocaine after a run-in at Los Angeles International Airport. The entertainer, whose real name is Artis Leon Ivey, 45, was arrested Friday at LAX after authorities searched his luggage and allegedly found rock cocaine. Coolio grabbed a screener's arm to prevent the search, the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said.

Brazilian police killed at least 10 male suspects, including two teenagers, during operations against drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro. Police inspector Rodrigo Oliveira told O Globo newspaper that 300 police officers took part in the early-morning raids. The action came a day after hundreds of police occupied a slum in Sao Paulo in response to shootouts and car burnings sparked by the alleged police killing of a suspect.

In a case that could cast suspicion on lawn ornaments everywhere, authorities say they have busted a drug ring that used concrete donkey statues to smuggle $1.5 million worth of marijuana into the Los Angeles area. At least 15 people have been arrested in connection with the scheme to ship 1,800 pounds of pot in 200 concrete burros, which were discovered last month in a shipping container at the Port of Long Beach.