Drug Arrests

Mario Corona was lauded as one of Los Angeles' top gang success stories. Newspaper articles told of how Corona spent his youth on the streets as a gangster dubbed "Spider" for a Pacoima gang before going straight and rising in the ranks of gang intervention specialists. He spoke on panels and to students. Along the way, he earned an undergraduate degree from Cal State Northridge and a master's in social work from USC.

The advertisement on Craigslist New York said the man would supply cocaine to any female who responded. A female officer from the Nassau County Police Department narcotics squad responded to the Internet ad and arranged a meeting. Nassau police said when Joshua W. O'Neil, 32, of Albany, N.Y., met the officer Tuesday night in Garden City, N.Y., he offered her crack cocaine in exchange for sexual favors. O'Neil was charged with sale of a controlled substance and possession with intent to sell.

Call them "the not ready for prime time traffickers." That's how Panamanian and U.S. authorities are describing alleged functionaries of a Mexican drug cartel that lost a $270-million load of cocaine in a colossal bust off Panama's Pacific coast last month.

An extensive subterranean marijuana growing operation has been broken up and three men arrested, federal authorities said Tuesday. The three are allegedly linked to an underground pot farm in Santa Ysabel in a woodsy area of northeast San Diego County. The farm was accessible only through an elevator in a garage and then a 65-foot-long tunnel, according to a federal criminal complaint. The growing rooms had sophisticated irrigation, lighting, electrical and ventilation systems.

Rapper-actor Snoop Dogg was charged Tuesday with gun possession by a convicted felon and a marijuana-related drug charge, prosecutors said. The 35-year-old Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, is scheduled to be arraigned on the two felony counts Wednesday morning in Superior Court in Pasadena, said Los Angeles County district attorney's office spokeswoman Jane Robison. The charges stem from Dogg's arrest Oct.

Was a legendary punk rocker arrested for possession of ... soap? That's the question surrounding last week's jailing of Germs drummer Don Bolles after a traffic stop in Newport Beach. Bolles, 50, whose real name is Jimmy Michael Giorsetti, said in an interview that he and his girlfriend were driving to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting Wednesday evening when police pulled over his 1968 Dodge van for a broken taillight.

Rapper-actor Snoop Dogg will avoid jail time after pleading no contest Wednesday to two felony charges -- but he might be legally allowed to continue smoking marijuana. The entertainer, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, entered the plea to a charge of gun possession by a convicted felon and a marijuana-related drug charge, prosecutors said. Dogg, 35, appeared before Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Terry Smerling in Pasadena clad in a leather jacket, black jeans and a T-shirt.

Convicted drug users in California are more likely to be arrested on new drug charges since Proposition 36 took effect than before voters approved the landmark law mandating drug treatment rather than incarceration, according a long-awaited study released Friday.

Call it a case of drugged dialing. Two men attempted to page their drug dealer from a Pomona pay phone with an urgent "911" order for dope about 3 a.m. Tuesday. Instead, they got through to police dispatchers, authorities said. "No one said criminals are smart," said Pomona Police Sgt. Michael Olivieri. "When they were interviewing afterward, they admitted they were in a hurry for dope and made an error in dialing." The call was traced, and a patrol car sent to the scene.

Sheriff's deputies discovered two indoor marijuana growing operations early Wednesday at homes in San Bernardino County. Two men were detained after deputies executed search warrants at the homes on Buckthorne Street and Atsina Road in Phelan. One of the men was found hiding in an attic. Authorities have not identified either man. The two operations are believed to be connected and are the latest in a string of busts in Southern California, said Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Jodi Miller.