Feds and LAPD Arrest 21 Alleged Dealers in Skid Row Drug Sweep

Authorities say 28 people will face drug charges in 'Operation Save Skid Row,' which served 44 search warrants across L.A. County.

Federal agents pulled drugs, cash and a gun out of tents along Skid Row on Thursday, ABC7 reported.

Officials called the sweep "Operation Save Skid Row." Authorities said 28 people will be charged with drug offenses, and 21 had been taken into custody as of Thursday evening, according to ABC7. The officials who announced it presented the raids as protection for people living on those downtown Los Angeles blocks, and said homeless people weren't the targets.

The Los Angeles Police Department ran the operation with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the IRS. Authorities said they served 44 search warrants across Los Angeles County and used about 100 vehicles. LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said 15 of the warrants were in the city, nine of them on Skid Row, with others in Pasadena, West Covina and Simi Valley.

At one Pasadena house around 5 a.m., ABC7 watched the FBI order the people inside to come out, then fly a drone through the home before agents went in. The man they were looking for wasn't there. Agents searched the house anyway.

Downtown, the sweep was centered on the corner of Fifth and Crocker streets. Investigators say some tents in the area were there only to sell drugs. The LAPD described its role as assisting the FBI and DEA in a narcotics operation, NBC Los Angeles reported, and federal authorities said it didn't involve immigration enforcement.

Authorities allege that members of three gangs are among those facing charges: the Main Street Crips, the Grape Street/Raymond Avenue Crips and the Pueblo Bishop Bloods. Authorities also accuse many of the suspects of dressing the part of social workers or homeless residents so they'd fit in and dodge police.

McDonnell said officers seized methamphetamine, fentanyl, crack cocaine, PCP and heroin. He said many of those arrested don't live in Los Angeles and come into the city to take advantage of it. "They saw vulnerable people as a currency, addiction as a business opportunity and our streets as a storefront," McDonnell said, according to ABC7.

Officials said the operation went after dealers, especially those with "sizable assets," and not the people living on the street. "We are no longer going to have open-air drug markets in the United States, let alone on Skid Row," First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said, according to ABC7. He argued that dealers keep homeless people addicted and take their public assistance money for drugs, and that this is why so many in the neighborhood are having psychotic episodes and not seeking help.

Patrick Grandy, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles office, said the goal is to cut the flow of narcotics in and around Skid Row. He said taking the people who prey on residents into custody would let authorities help the people who live on its streets. Federal agents said the work is part of a push against fentanyl and PCP sales. NBC Los Angeles reported that the targets included street-level dealers and their suppliers.

McDonnell said the operation came out of more than six months of joint investigation and planning. Officials described it as the next step after an operation at MacArthur Park earlier this year, where federal officials said 24 people were arrested.

Source: abc7.com, retrieved October 8, 2026. Other sources: nbclosangeles.com.