16 Accused of Making, Selling $30 Million Worth of PCP

After a three-year investigation, authorities announced Wednesday that 16 purported members of the Bounty Hunters street gang were indicted on charges of manufacturing and distributing about $30 million worth of PCP throughout Los Angeles County.

The grand jury indictments against the defendants, all but one of them now in custody, could put an immediate crimp in the countywide manufacture and sales of the powerful drug, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Maria Ramirez.

“It is a significant [case] in that we believe this . . . organization controls the PCP sold in L.A. County or at least most of L.A. County,” said Ramirez, who presented the case to the grand jury with co-prosecutor Scott Millington.

The group’s alleged operation was so vast, Ramirez said, that it was accused of manufacturing about 200 gallons of PCP over the past three years. One gallon, the prosecutor noted, is enough to supply about 5,000 doses of the drug.

Phencyclidine, or PCP, is a hallucinogen related to animal tranquilizers that numbs pain in users and can cause extraordinary acts of strength and violence. In its heyday of the early 1980s, it was commonly known as angel dust.

The case against the 16 defendants began in August 1994 when a resident in South-Central Los Angeles reported seeing several individuals disposing of chemical waste products in an alley, Ramirez said.

When Los Angeles police inspected the materials, the prosecutor added, they determined they were byproducts used in the manufacture of PCP.

Over time, Ramirez said, surveillance and reports of other incidents revealed the extent of the manufacturing and distribution ring. Spending thousands of dollars in cash to purchase chemicals and renting U-Haul trucks to transport them, prosecutors alleged, the group of gang members assembled a far-reaching manufacturing and distribution ring.

When the case was presented to the grand jury earlier this month, authorities alleged that 15 locations--some as far as Ventura County--were involved in the purchase, manufacture and disposal of chemicals used to produce PCP.

The estimate of the group’s three years of manufacturing was based on surveillance and the residue recovered at the dump sites.

The indictments, unsealed Wednesday, led to a series of arrests that began last weekend, Ramirez said.

Charged in the alleged conspiracy to manufacture PCP were: Charles Thomas, 29; Edward Jackson, 37; Clark Watson, 31; Perry Thomas, 36; Tyrone Baker, 29; Clifford Byers, 29; Donald McRoberson, 30; Shawn Dandy, 27; Anthony Rogers, 30; Andre Smith, 38; Ronald Thomas, 37; Kendrick White, 28; Guillermo Sanchez, 20; Paul Todd, 36; and Anthony Allen, 28. All are from Los Angeles County.

Although several of the defendants were already in custody on unrelated charges, those arrested in the sweep in recent days were each held on $1 million bail.

The sixteenth defendant, 34-year-old Derwin Joshua, has not yet been arrested, Ramirez said.

Several of the defendants already have pleaded not guilty to the charges and all are expected to follow suit.