Federal agents and local authorities have arrested more than a dozen people as part of a sweep this week targeting what authorities are calling an “open drug market” in MacArthur Park.
As part of that First Assistant US Atty. Bill Essayli dubbed “Operation Free MacArthur Park,” authorities arrested 18 people, including two people believed to be major sources of fentanyl and methamphetamine in the park, according to the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
Those arrested are among 25 defendants facing drug-trafficking charges, authorities said. The other seven did not escape.
Essayli wrote in X that the person suspected of being the main drug trafficker in this park is a resident of Calabasas who is currently under arrest and facing life in prison. The other defendants also face decades in prison, he said.
Essayli said the operation and other recent takedowns related to the park show that the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security “are committed to fighting the drug traffickers who are poisoning our citizens.”
“MacArthur Park should be for families, it should be for the residents of Los Angeles – not for drug dealers and gangsters,” Essayli said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. “We’re here to free it … This is not a one-man operation. We’re here and we’re not leaving.”
According to an affidavit filed in federal charges, Mallaly Moreno-Lopez, 31, and her boyfriend, Jackson Tarfur, 28, both of South LA, are accused of “operating as one of the major sources of supply of fentanyl powder and methamphetamine distributed in the Alvarado Corridor and MacArthur of Gangth Street, in general.”
Moreno-Lopez and Tarfur are suspected of bringing drugs into the Alvarado tunnel to hide in storefronts and later distribute to street-level drug dealers.
Yolanda Iriarte-Avila, 40, of Calabasas is accused of being the source of supplying Moreno-Lopez with methamphetamine, using Iriarte-Avila’s boyfriend, Jesus Morales-Landel, 33, of Exposition Park in South Los Angeles, who is suspected of being a local drug dealer, according to documents.
Dozens of paramilitary personnel and LAPD officers were seen raiding several stores along the Alvarado tunnel Wednesday afternoon. As agents moved in and out of the area, LAPD officers cordoned off the northeast corner of the park with yellow crime scene tape.
“You on the roof of the house, go back to your place of residence,” said a voice on the microphone.
Anthony Chrysanthis, head of the DEA’s Los Angeles office, said six warrants were issued to businesses selling drugs in the Alvarado corridor.
Minutes before the attack, LAPD teams slowly surrounded the park. At around 2:08 p.m., a caravan of additional police and state vehicles pulled up to 6th and Alvarado and a large number of police officers spilled out.
LAPD officers and DEA agents converged on Alvarado Avenue near MacArthur Park targeting what authorities described as an open drug market.
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
They were quickly joined behind a large, command-post-like vehicle, which was followed by several other armored vehicles.
The police began to search the park, turning down the people they met.
The activity caught the attention of several onlookers, who were queuing as part of a food giveaway organized by a local non-profit organization called the Dream Center Foundation.
“You will gather us all in one place, that’s where you want us,” said another man as he passed through the line.
At one point, a black and white LAPD helicopter flew overhead. Authorities made several announcements over the microphone that it was a Drug Enforcement Administration operation.
“We have a warrant for the use of drugs in this area,” said another announcement, instructing people to obey the law’s orders and walk down the street with their hands over their heads.
He held US Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche tweeted that DEA agents and LAPD officers “have taken MacArthur Park back.”
“To the drug dealers poisoning the streets of Los Angeles: your safe haven is gone.”
The latest in a series of MacArthur Park demolitions. In March, authorities arrested several members and associates of the 18th Street gang on charges of murder, racketeering and drug trafficking.
Authorities at the time said the gang controlled the park “as an open-air drug den, using tents to socialize with homeless people and avoid law enforcement detection.”
Chrysanthis, with the DEA, called the operation this week “an effort to restore safety, health and hope to the community that lives here.”
