An officer from the Los Alamitos Police Department, LAPD, at around 10:30 AM Wednesday, arrested two men in conjunction with a marijuana drug bust in the 3800 block of Howard Avenue. Seized were approximately 45 pounds of marijuana, worth about $132,000, reported the LAPD. According to LAPD Captain Bruce McAlpine, “This is pretty large for Los Alamitos. Typically when we seize narcotics, whether it is marijuana or some other type of drug, the amounts that we’re dealing with are a lot less, certainly less than a pound, so this is a very large arrest with a lot of weight.”
The police said in a statement “Police Detectives identified an apartment on Howard Avenue where the drugs were being delivered and served a search warrant on the location. An additional two pounds of marijuana and other paraphernalia were seized, and an arrest warrant is currently being sought for the apartment’s tenant, whose name is being withheld pending further investigation.”
The police statement said “a search of the vehicle {a late model red Mustang}, yielded approximately 45 pounds of marijuana hidden three large duffel bags.” But, Captain McAlpine told www.OC180NEWS.com the drugs were packaged into smaller packages within the three duffle bags. The two male suspects were arrested on charges of marijuana possession, possession for sales, and the transportation of marijuana.
We asked Captain McAlpine if the police think the drugs were being delivered to the apartment. He said “As of right now {yesterday afternoon} that’s what we believe, but this is still under investigation, it’s an active ongoing investigation, so I’m really limited as to what information I can tell you.”
He would not confirm if the apartment was previously under suspicion or surveillance, but he did confirm that the car and the two suspects were not under investigation until the officer noticed them during a regular patrol late Wednesday morning. “The officer patrols that area regularly, he saw the two occupants in the vehicle, something raised his suspicions, and based on his suspicions, he contacted the occupants.”
Arrested were Jeffrey Palk, 35, of Los Angeles and Scott Alexander, 50, a resident of Oregon. McAlpine said “Right now we’re focusing on the marijuana, where it came from, and who all of the different players are. I can tell you that there are other persons of interest that we are interested in talking to.” When asked if he thought the marijuana came from Oregon, McAlpine said “That’s certainly a possibility. Our detectives are investigating where this marijuana could have come from. We don’t know at this point, so they’re trying to track that down.”
The suspects were taken to the Seal Beach jail because Los Alamitos contracts with Seal Beach for booking and jail services. The bail was set at $25,000 and McAlpine indicated the defendants posted bail and were released.
