A man was arrested for the possession of meth.
The last Pacific Palisades crime report included this item:
POSSESSION OF CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE:
September 22, 7:15 a.m. at Entrada and Pacific Coast Highway. A 32-year-old male was arrested for possession of meth while officers were checking for trespassers in a high fire zone.
Circling the News learned that members of the Pacific Palisades Task Force on Homelessness were going behind the retaining wall along PCH (below Corona del Mar) to ensure that transients were not camping in the Very High Fire Severity Zone along the bluffs. They had alerted police officers about their plans.
LAPD went in before them and caught the guy cutting up meth (methamphetamine) . He was arrested for distribution and trespassing in a posted high fire zone.
Originally the crime was charged as a felony, but because of Covid-19 protocol, the charge was reduced to a misdemeanor and the man was released five hours later.
One of the Task Force members told CTN that “this is the poison making many of our homeless folks nuts. We can’t tell if they are mentally ill or high on meth.”
The Task Force members sent Councilman Mike Bonin a letter, plus these photos, asking that the laws be stricter for meth dealers: an automatic felony and rehab for anybody dealing with this amount of illegal drugs.
“We got lucky getting this batch of meth off our streets,” the Task Force member said. “It’s so frustrating to have this going on in our backyards.”
Packets of meth were being processed near Chautauqua and Pacific Coast Highway.