Police Say Boy, 13, Helped Out at Home by Selling ‘Coke’

It seemed like a routine investigation of drug sales from a house until a 13-year-old boy opened the door, Los Angeles police said Tuesday.

According to police reports, the boy warily eyed the undercover officer who had come to his Canoga Park home late Monday afternoon to investigate an anonymous tip that cocaine was being sold.

The boy’s manner was businesslike.

“He opened the door and interrogated the officer, then invited him in, sat down and quizzed him some more,” said Lt. Bob Kraus. “He asked things like, ‘How long have you known my mother? Who are you? How many times have you been here before?’ It’s the thing all good dope peddlers do to try and be sure they’re not talking to a policeman.”

Sold Officer Cocaine

Finally, the boy handed the officer a small packet containing a half a gram of cocaine in exchange for $40, Kraus said. The youth, who was not named because he is a juvenile, was then arrested and taken to Sylmar Juvenile Hall where he is being held on suspicion of selling cocaine.

Kraus and Detective Joe Stanley said police commonly encounter children at the homes of drug dealers but almost never find parents using their children to sell drugs.

“This is kind of a rarity in our business,” Kraus said.

The youth, a seventh-grader at Faith Baptist School, told police he has been helping his parents sell cocaine from their Topanga Canyon Boulevard home for the last eight months, Kraus said.

‘Takes Care of Business’

“When the parents are gone, he takes care of business for them,” said Kraus, who heads police narcotics operations in the San Fernando Valley. Kraus said the boy’s father, Manuel Araujo, 32, a janitor, told police the youth was only “doing it to help.”

Araujo was arrested when he returned home shortly after the boy was taken into custody and is being held in Van Nuys Jail on suspicion of using a minor for the sale of dangerous drugs.

Police are seeking the youth’s mother, Carmen, 30, for questioning, Kraus said. The elder Araujo’s bail has been set at $20,000. The youth’s 2-year-old brother, whom he was baby-sitting Monday afternoon, has been turned over to relatives, Kraus said.

Kraus said police found about an ounce of cocaine in powder form in a microwave oven and more than a dozen hypodermic syringes elsewhere in the house, along with a stolen gun. The drugs were packaged in paper and color-coded, apparently according to price, Kraus said. He said the estimated street value of the drugs was about $2,000.