Hundreds of federal agents and LAPD officers descended on Los Angeles' Skid Row on Wednesday morning, executing 28 arrest warrants and 44 search warrants for federal drug trafficking offenses involving fentanyl, methamphetamine, cocaine and PCP, per reporting from Fox News and RedState. The operation, dubbed "Operation Save Skid Row," was carried out by a multi-agency task force including the FBI, DEA, IRS, ATF, and U.S. Marshals alongside local police.
According to Fox News, the raids focused on 28 alleged drug dealers said by federal officials to drive luxury cars into Skid Row to sell narcotics to users, some of whom receive federal benefits. Before moving on the encampments, authorities executed searches at the homes of alleged distributors — including a residence in Pasadena, per RedState's coverage. Guns, drugs and paraphernalia were seized as evidence, and notices were placed on tents stating they are "subject to seizure and forfeiture for violations of the Federal Controlled Substances Act."
Years of Inaction Preceded the Raids
The operation arrived in a city where the toll of failed policy is visible from the sidewalk. RedState's coverage noted the condition of Skid Row and Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles and pointed to dysfunction in San Diego under Democratic Mayor Todd Gloria, where the outlet wrote that the City Council has set a "record-breaking pace of destruction." That framing comes from RedState, and the fentanyl, meth and PCP arrests are the federal government's answer to a drug crisis that has festered in broad daylight for years.
As RedState reported, the timing follows a week of outrage from Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after President Trump, speaking at a rally in Nebraska, said temporarily paying higher gas prices was a small price to pay against the risk of Iran having the ability to bomb U.S. cities such as Los Angeles or San Diego. Newsom, Bass, and the California Democratic Party publicly claimed Trump was fine with the destruction of those cities and promised to protect them from a president they accused of abandoning them, according to RedState.
RedState also reported that critics responded by pointing to photographs of the destruction that Democratic policies have already produced in Los Angeles and San Diego. The claim that Newsom and Bass have "hamstrung local officials for years" is RedState's characterization of the two Democrats' governance, not a finding by this outlet.
What the Feds Say They Found
Federal officials described a narcotics pipeline in which traffickers profit while the neighborhood around them deteriorates. The warrants targeted fentanyl, PCP and other narcotics, per RedState. The seized tents are now subject to federal forfeiture proceedings under the Controlled Substances Act.
This was a law enforcement action, not a policy announcement. It is not yet known whether additional arrests are planned or how many of the 28 individuals taken into custody will face federal charges, and RedState's report did not include a full statement from the Justice Department or LAPD.
Our Take
For years, Californians were told that homelessness and open-air drug markets were problems too complex to solve, too bound up in "root causes" to touch. Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass spent the past week lecturing the country about who really cares about Los Angeles while their own city's Skid Row was run by dealers in luxury cars selling poison to people collecting federal checks. That is the government they built. On Wednesday, a different government showed up and showed what resolve looks like.
Notice the absence of excuses. The federal task force did not blame the weather or the housing market or the legacy of Ronald Reagan. It identified 28 alleged traffickers, obtained 44 warrants, and moved. Compare that to the years of taxpayer-funded encampment "sweeps" that cleared a sidewalk only for it to refill by the weekend. This is what happens when the people in charge decide the drug dealers are the problem — not the voters who complain about them.
Newsom and Bass want you to believe the only threat to Los Angeles comes from a president's words at a rally in Nebraska. The threat stood on their sidewalks the whole time, and the feds just proved which side of the line they are on. The question now is simple: will Sacramento and City Hall get out of the way, or will they find a way to call this operation cruel?
