Federal agents conducted a sweeping operation in downtown Los Angeles targeting drug activity linked to gangs including 18th Street and MS-13, authorities said Wednesday. The coordinated enforcement action, dubbed “Operation Free MacArthur Park,” involved more than 200 federal agents who executed search warrants after months of investigation into drug trafficking along the Alvarado corridor.
As part of the operation, officials charged 25 suspects and seized approximately 19 kilograms of fentanyl. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated that law enforcement was “reclaiming MacArthur Park for the citizens of Los Angeles and the United States.”
“We are executing on 25 arrest warrants and six separate search warrants targeting the people who are distributing the drugs here in the park,” Essayli said. “We’re going for the dealers and the suppliers.”
Essayli described businesses along the corridor as locations where drug traffickers stash and distribute narcotics on the sidewalk. “This is where you come in, you buy the drugs,” he said. “And then if you turn around here, that’s where the drug users go. They go into MacArthur Park to shoot up.”
Essayli also highlighted a significant decline in the once-iconic park, noting it was built as a beautiful space but has been increasingly taken over by drug users, dealers, and gang members over the past decade. “18th Street gang claims this territory,” he added. “We’re taking it back. This is not the gang’s territory. This is our territory.”
