News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2006
SA Sarah Pullen
Public Information Officer
Number: 213-621-6827

DEA’s Mobile Enforcement Team Focuses on Los Angeles
LAPD and MET make significant local impact with 267 arrests

NOV 9 -- (LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA) – Today, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Acting Special Agent in Charge Ralph W. Partridge and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief William Bratton announced the results of a joint DEA/LAPD special operation targeting drug violence in central Los Angeles.

This special operation began on May 22, 2006, after the LAPD requested DEA assistance in targeting the highly visible and vast amount of street level narcotics dealers operating in the central area of Los Angeles. The DEA’s Mobile Enforcement Team (MET) was deployed to work in Los Angeles as a task force with officers from the LAPD’s Central Division.

Ralph W. Partridge, DEA Acting Special Agent in Charge, stated that “the partnership developed through this joint LAPD and MET operation has achieved significant results. The DEA will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to take these violent drug dealers off of our streets to make our communities safer.”

To date, this operation has resulted in the arrest of 267 individuals and the seizure of 634.1 grams of cocaine, 875.68 grams of crack cocaine, 1258.8 grams of methamphetamine, 520.1 grams of heroin, 110,814.74 grams of marijuana, six guns, one vehicle, and more than $131,926 in United States Currency. Of the 267 individuals arrested, approximately 90% have prior criminal histories.

The DEA MET groups were formed in 1995 as a way of responding to state and local law enforcement’s concerns about the spread of drug trafficking and the associated violence. The more than two dozen DEA MET teams operating throughout the United States are tasked with identifying and dismantling violent drug trafficking groups that have gained a foothold in some urban and rural areas.

Please forward any questions to DEA Los Angeles Public Information Officer Sarah Pullen at (213) 621-6827.

Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.