27 Seized in Drug Sting at Alleged Dealer’s Home

Twenty-seven people were arrested in the Antelope Valley on Thursday during a sting operation in which Spanish-speaking sheriff’s deputies took over the home of an alleged heroin dealer, took phone orders for the drug from callers, then arrested would-be buyers.

Two men were arrested at a Palmdale apartment on suspicion of conspiracy to distribute heroin after deputies served a search warrant there at 7 a.m., Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Dick Dinsmoor said Thursday. They were being held at the Antelope Valley Jail in lieu of $20,000 bail each.

Deputies then used the apartment to take phone orders for heroin from callers. Sixteen men and nine women were arrested when they met undercover deputies at various locations in the valley to pick up and pay for the drug, deputies said. Each was charged with attempting to possess heroin and taken into custody in lieu of $2,500 bail.

Dinsmoor said, however, that deputies did not recover any heroin at the apartment.