Earlier this week, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) declared the arrest of two people who were allegedly selling drugs inside a homeless camp. According to the LAPD’s Rampart Division, the suspects had reportedly been operating out of an RV parked next to the campsite in a Westlake neighborhood that is “well known” for drug-related crimes.
Police found the RV late last month thanks to a number of search warrants, and they took $147,987 in cash, cocaine, and a weapon out of it.
Police discovered that the RV was being utilized “solely for engaging in narcotics sales and consumption,” rather than “being used by any unhoused individual as a living quarter.”
Authorities claim that setting up a drug operation close to a homeless camp, where many residents are probably battling serious addiction, is a well-established economic strategy. Law enforcement in Los Angeles attributes the out-of-control cycle of lethal drug overdoses and intertwined homelessness to gang infiltration using tent encampments as a front for drug operations.