Drugs: Police Haul Away 40 Plants Growing In His Backyard. 'This Is An Act Of War,' He Says. The founder of a medicinal marijuana club was arrested after police raided his rented home in Santa Ana and uprooted 40 marijuana plants in the backyard, police said Friday. Marvin Chavez, 46, was released late Thursday after police searched his three-bedroom home on Meriday Lane. Police said their investigation is continuing and that Chavez has not been charged. Chavez, who says he has provided marijuana to people suffering from catastrophic illnesses and smokes it daily himself to ease the pain of arthritis, said the plants that police confiscated were intended for his own use. "This is my medication," Chavez said Friday. "This is an act of war to take my medicine away and leave me here suffering." [continues 226 words]
Hazard: Fifty Seniors And 10 Businesses In Westminster Flee Hydrochloric Acid Leak. Ten Westminster businesses and a home for senior citizens were evacuated Wednesday after authorities discovered leaking barrels of hydrochloric acid dumped behind a Little Saigon store, fire officials said. A worker called police shortly before noon after finding three 5-foot-tall containers propped against a fence in the 14900 block of Dillow Street. Fumes spewed from at least one of the barrels, forming a small cloud. Firefighters and a hazardous materials team determined that the hydrochloric acid was left over from a methamphetamine lab. It was the third such dumping incident in the area in less than two months, fire officials said. A private contractor that specializes in the disposal of chemicals diluted the solution, which produced enough air pressure to blow the valve off the top of the barrel. [continues 235 words]
Crime: Santa Ana Police Identify The Two Officers Who Say They Mistook His Flashlight For A Gun. A convicted drug dealer who was shot by Santa Ana police after they allegedly mistook his flashlight for a gun remained hospitalized Monday in critical condition. Santiago Valencia Ayala, 23, was in intensive care recovering from two gunshot wounds to his chest, according to a spokeswoman for Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. On Monday, police also released the names of the officers involved in the May 15 shooting: Officer Rodolfo Reynoso, a four-year veteran, and Cpl. Eric Rimat, who has been with the department 15 years. [continues 300 words]
Law Enforcement: Police say the state narcotics agent from San Jaun Capistrano was part of a plot to distribute cocaine. A state narcotics officer from San Jaun Capistrano was charged Monday in an alleged plot to distribute cocaine after an undercover sting operation netted 26 pounds of cocaine and $285,000, officials said. Richard W. Parker, 43, a Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agent, was arrested after meeting with a woman on the roof of a Pasadena parking garage, allegedly to collect $47,000 for cocaine buys over the past few weeks. [continues 245 words]
The sting that led to the arrest of Richard W.Parker,an agent with the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement who lives in San Jaun Capistrano,allegedly began with a tip from a source in Detroit. The source told police of purchasing up to 5 kilograms of cocaine from another man, Gerhard Ewald Hensel of Redondo Beach, at least twice a year for the past six years. The source, who has a criminal record, is cooperating with authorities in hopes of receiving leniency in a drug case. [continues 326 words]
