The last time I wrote about Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park, I suggested that it be added to the booming new “disaster tourism” that sprouted up in the wake of the city’s wildfire disaster.
I noted that with all the homelessness and open-air drug use, it would be an epic stop on the route.
However, I failed to truly appreciate the magnitude of the problem.
Today, during “Operation MacArthur Park,” roughly 300 federal and local agents flooded the park and surrounding streets, backed by tactical vehicles, plain‑clothes and uniformed officers, and helicopter overwatch.
Federal and local law enforcement agencies launched a massive drug raid in multiple Southern California locations on Wednesday, arresting at least 17 people.The raid, which was spearheaded by the Drug Enforcement Administration in coordination with the Los Angeles Police Department, focused mainly on MacArthur Park but also included arrests in Calabasas, San Gabriel and South L.A., the DEA confirmed.As part of the arrests made in those cities, agents seized 9 kilos of fentanyl, worth $8 million – $10 million, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said, adding that he believes these drugs are from the Sinaloa cartel.The Department of Justice said “Operation Free MacArthur Park” aims to address what it described as an open-air drug market running rampant in the park, involving massive amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine.
As part of the operation, nearly two dozen DEA officers raided the South Los Angeles home of alleged narco queen Mallaly Moreno-Lopez and her boyfriend Jackson Tarfur.
Agents surrounded their apartment and called for Moreno-Lopez and Tarfur to come out. When they did not emerge, officers broke down their fortified steel door and rushed inside.During the raid — spearheaded by First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli — the suspects allegedly tried to get rid of their stash by filling the toilet with baggies of fentanyl in a desperate final act.A tote bag stuffed with drugs was found next to the toilet, authorities said.MacArthur Park — located in councilmember Eunisses Hernandez’s district — has been spotlighted for months by The California Post as a junkie’s paradise. City programs provide the homeless addicts in the area with free needles and meals, turning a park once enjoyed by families into a danger zone.
Storefronts along the Alvarado corridor in the historic city district were also targeted.
Dozens of armed federal agents and LAPD officers were seeing raiding several storefronts near the Alvarado corridor on Wednesday afternoon. As agents moved in and out of the location, LAPD officers cordoned off the northeast corner of the park with yellow crime scene tape.“You on the rooftop, go back to your residence,” a voice on the loudspeaker said.Anthony Chrysanthis, the head of the DEA’s office in Los Angeles, said six warrants were served at businesses selling narcotics on the Alvarado corridor.Minutes before the raid, LAPD squads slowly circled the park. Then around 2:08 p.m., a caravan of additional police and federal vehicles pulled up to 6th and Alvarado and scores of officers spilled out.
It now appears that MacArthur Park doesn’t need to be added to L.A.’s disaster tourism route. With 300 federal agents, tactical vehicles, and helicopter overwatch required just to serve warrants along the Alvarado corridor, it’s clearly graduated from “tourist attraction” to “active war zone.”
When your local councilmember’s district requires a multi-agency military-style operation to address what amounts to a cartel-run open-air drug supermarket, you’ve moved well beyond the scope of disaster tourism.
At least the Palisades fire eventually burned itself out. It is good to see there is now some attempt to extinguish MacArthur Park’s inferno, fueled by progressive policies that provide free needles while turning a blind eye to drug dealers in the name of “culture”.
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