United States Drug Enforcement Administration

LOS ANGELES – Law enforcement today arrested 23 defendants out of a total of 28 individuals, including residents of West Covina and Studio City, charged in federal criminal complaints with trafficking drugs, including fentanyl and methamphetamine, in and around the Skid Row neighborhood of downtown Los Angeles, an area notorious for poverty, homelessness, and drug use.

Today’s Homeland Security Task Force takedown mirrors similar takedowns earlier this year at MacArthur Park, another area of Los Angeles long known for street crime, gang activity, homelessness, and drug addiction. Prosecutors have arrested 24 individuals in those cases.

Among the defendants arrested today as part of the Skid Row action are the following individuals charged with distribution of a controlled substance:

• Rodney Thomas, 55, a.k.a. “Jamaica,” of Los Angeles
• Charles McIntyre, 65, of Los Angeles
• Dwayne Richards, 62, of Los Angeles
• Manuel Vaughns, 52, of West Covina
• Larry Pitre, 70, a.k.a. “Kat Daddy,” of Studio City
• Lionel Nelson, 57, a.k.a. “Popeye,” of Watts
• Tyzarioun Grimsley, 28, of Los Angeles
• Eric Goring, 38, of Los Angeles
• Michael Taylor, 39, of Los Angeles

During the Skid Row investigation, law enforcement searched 20 residences, most of which were outside Skid Row, as well as several tents associated with drug dealing inside Skid Row, and seized firearms and drugs, including suspected methamphetamine, cocaine, cocaine base, and pills, as well as bulk currency and luxury vehicles. 

“Today’s operation targeted drug traffickers who prey on some of the most vulnerable members of the community. They targeted the homeless in Skid Row, kept them addicted on drugs like PCP, and took their public assistance money for payment,” said First Assistant United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “We will use every lawful tool to dismantle the networks flooding Skid Row with deadly drugs. Those dealing drugs are looking at mandatory prison sentences. This operation is just the beginning. More to come.” 

“It would be simple to overlook the crimes of Skid Row and act as if it doesn’t matter… confined to a small area and confined to vulnerable populations. Make no mistake about this operation, these narcotics traffickers are the single largest driver of violent crime in the Skid Row area of Los Angeles,” said Patrick Grandy, the Assistant Director of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.  “Our hope is that this effort will make a difference in the communities where these defendants operated, and the lives of law-abiding residents, including our most vulnerable.”

“We have thousands of unsheltered, many battling severe addiction and mental illness, many isolated from family and support. They are the most vulnerable among us. The criminals we arrested today are not low-level dealers,” said David Olesky, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration Los Angeles Field Division. “These traffickers did not hide in the shadows. They operated in plain sight. They used tents, tarps, and makeshift structures as storefronts – as drug distribution centers. They bet if they blended into the suffering around them, law enforcement would drive by, the public would look away, and they would go unnoticed. They bet on our apathy. Today, that bet failed.”

“Violence by local gang members against our vulnerable homeless neighbors will not be tolerated,” stated ATF Special Agent in Charge Kenny Cooper. “ATF will use its firearms and violent crime expertise to hold offenders accountable and protect all of our community members.”

“Drug trafficking organizations thrive on the illicit proceeds generated from poisoning our communities,” said Darren Lian, Special Agent in Charge, IRS Criminal Investigation’s Los Angeles Field Office. “By following the money, IRS CI can expose the financial infrastructure that allows these criminal networks to operate in places like Skid Row, where vulnerable individuals are exploited precisely because they are easy targets for dealers seeking a profit. Today’s takedown demonstrates our commitment to working with our federal partners to disrupt the financial networks that support fentanyl and methamphetamine distribution in Los Angeles.”

According to court documents, Skid Row is a neighborhood in Los Angeles characterized by high rates of poverty, drug addiction, and homelessness. Many of the homeless in the area are drug users, and Skid Row is a known location to purchase drugs such as fentanyl, cocaine, cocaine base, methamphetamine, and phencyclidine – commonly known as “PCP.” 

Drug dealers from across the Los Angeles area travel to Skid Row to prey on the neighborhood’s homeless population and the individuals who live there. Skid Row drug dealers consist of a mixture of members of criminal street gangs and independent operators.

The tactics used by Skid Row drug dealers include dressing like members of the homeless population or social workers in order to blend in with environment and evade detection by law enforcement, using tents and makeshift structures to hide their illicit activities from public view, and stashing or storing a majority of their supply of drugs in nearby vehicles, tents, or makeshift structures, which limits their criminal liability should they encounter law enforcement.

Drug dealers also utilize single-room occupancy (SRO) units and other forms of low-income housing available in the area to store or stash their drug supply. Skid Row drug dealers often use vehicles and residences not registered in their name to elude scrutiny by law enforcement.

Skid Row has a high density of foot traffic from the homeless population that lives there. As a result of the high degree of foot traffic, street-level drug dealers often hide in plain sight and conduct hand-to-hand narcotics transactions in parks, including Gladys Park and San Julian Park. Drug users will walk up to a street-level dealer, pay them $20 or $40, and receive a small user quantity of cocaine, fentanyl, PCP or methamphetamine. 

Skid Row drug dealers occupy territory and protect or control their territory through various means, including violence. The territory held by drug dealers ranges in size from single street corners to entire city blocks.

For example, Vaughns is a documented Raymond Avenue Crip gang member who regularly sells inside Gladys Park.  Vaughns is associated with residences in Pasadena, California, and West Covina, California, as well as an SRO in Skid Row.

The complaints further allege that the intersection of Fifth and Crocker is controlled by a group of drug dealers all using tents and makeshift structures to sell drugs, including McIntyre, Grimsley, and R. Thomas.  According to the complaint, these tents are not used as housing, but instead as a location to store and distribute drugs. Specifically, R. Thomas lived in a high rise in downtown Los Angeles near the Los Angeles Convention Center, and he would drive to his tent at Fifth and Crocker in multiple different luxury vehicles, including a white 2016 Bentley and a black 2022 Mercedes Benz that was later pictured outside of his tent at 5th and Crocker.   

Nelson, a Watts-based drug dealer was observed on August 19 selling approximately 34 grams of fentanyl for $60 out of a Mercedes-Benz automobile parked in Skid Row.

Taylor, who also allegedly sold drugs in Skid Row despite living elsewhere, would disguise himself as a transient, wearing dirty clothes to appear disheveled and employing local transients to serve as lookouts for him in return for drugs. 

Additionally, the corner of Fifth and San Pedro was known to be used by members of the Pueblo Bishops Bloods gang, who would sell drugs from makeshift tents and tables.  In February 2026, LAPD arrested Dent, F. Thomas, and others, after F. Thomas sold cocaine base, and recovered over 100 grams of methamphetamine, over 400 grams of PCP, and a loaded firearm from the vicinity of the tent and F. Thomas’s vehicle, along with a digital scale.  Dent and F. Thomas were both arrested as part of today’s operation. 

A criminal complaint merely contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, the defendants would each face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison. 

Joint Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Southern California Drug Task Force (SCDTF) High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) with significant assistance from the United States Marshals Service (USMS), the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Housing and Urban Development Office of the Inspector General (HUD OIG), the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the Pasadena Police Department, the Huntington Park Police Department, the El Segundo Police Department, the Santa Monica Police Department, the Simi Valley Police Department, the West Covina Police Department.

This case is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

Assistant United States Attorneys Barr Benyamin, Chris Bulut, Sebastian Bellm, Max Gordon, and Logan Page of the General Crimes Section are prosecuting these cases.