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20 - ORGANIZATIONS/GOVERNMENT/USA/LASD Major Violators.md

@@ -1,31 +1,105 @@
 ---
+title: LASD Major Violators
+aliases:
+  - LASD Major Violators
+  - Major Violators
+  - Majors
+  - Majors I
+  - Majors II
+  - Majors III
+  - Major Violators Team II
+  - LASD Majors
+  - Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department Major Violators
+  - Sheriff's Major Violators
 category: "U.S. Government"
 tags:
   - Organization
-  - Organization/Law_Enforcement
-  - United_States
-  - Los_Angeles
+  - LawEnforcement
+  - LosAngeles
+  - Narcotics
+  - DarkAlliance
+  - BigSpender
+  - ContraCocaine
   - 1980s
-  - Dark_Alliance_Investigation
-summary: Elite narcotics units of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that investigated the Blandon-Ross cocaine network and were considered among the best drug detectives in the nation.
+summary: "Narcotics detective squads of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department that searched the Blandon organization on October 27, 1986, and whose deputies were convicted in the 1990 Big Spender corruption trial."
 location: "Los Angeles County, California"
+relations:
+  - type: investigated
+    with: "[[Danilo Blandon]]"
+    start: 1986-09
+    end: 1986-10
+    role: "Majors II surveillance and October 27, 1986 search warrants against the Blandon organization"
+    fn: 2
+  - type: investigated
+    with: "[[Ronald Lister]]"
+    start: 1986-10
+    role: "searched Lister's residence on October 27, 1986"
+    fn: 2
+  - type: participant_in
+    with: "[[Operation Big Spender]]"
+    start: 1990-02
+    end: 1990-12
+    role: "former Majors II deputies indicted, tried and convicted for stealing seized cash"
+    fn: 5
+  - type: member_of
+    with: "[[Thomas Gordon]]"
+    reverse: true
+    role: "Majors II deputy who swore the October 23, 1986 search warrant affidavit"
+    fn: 2
+  - type: member_of
+    with: "[[Edward Huffman]]"
+    reverse: true
+    role: "sergeant leading the Blandon investigation"
+    fn: 2
+created: 2025-08-05
+updated: 2026-10-05
 ---
-The [[Los Angeles]] County Sheriff's Department (LASD) Major Violators squads (Majors I, II, and III) were elite narcotics investigation units considered some of the best drug detectives in the nation during the 1980s. They investigated the [[Danilo Blandon|Blandón]]-[[Ricky Ross|Ross]] cocaine network, the largest crack distribution operation uncovered in Los Angeles up to that time.[^1]
+The Major Violators squads of the [[Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department]] (LASD), known as Majors I, II and III, were narcotics investigation units that [[Gary Webb]] described as considered some of the best drug detectives in the nation during the 1980s.[^1] Majors II investigated the [[Danilo Blandon|Blandón]] organization in 1986 and executed the search warrants of October 27, 1986, whose seized papers, informant statements and aftermath were later examined by the CIA Inspector General, the Justice Department Inspector General and the Sheriff's own 1996 review.[^2][^3] Several deputies of the squad were afterwards indicted, tried and convicted of stealing cash seized from narcotics suspects, in the prosecutions known as Big Spender.[^4][^5]
 
-### Structure and Resources
+### Structure and reputation
 
-The squads worked out of trailers at the Whittier and Lennox stations, each team of seven or eight detectives commanded by a sergeant. Majors II was headed by Sergeant Edward Huffman. Former lieutenant Mike Fossey served as unit supervisor and intelligence officer. "The Majors were hot shit," said Bell PD detective [[Jerry Guzzetta]]. "They had all the resources, they had the funding, they had the manpower, they had the surveillance equipment, the night vision stuff, the helicopters, the overtime. They had everything." Any cop with ambition lusted for assignment to the Majors. They got the biggest cases, seized the largest amounts of cash and cocaine, and worked virtually unsupervised.[^1]
+According to Webb, the squads worked out of trailers at the Whittier and Lennox stations, each team of seven or eight detectives commanded by a sergeant. Majors II was headed by Sergeant [[Edward Huffman]], and former lieutenant Mike Fossey was the unit's supervisor and intelligence officer. Webb quoted Bell police detective [[Jerry Guzzetta]]: "The Majors were hot shit. They had all the resources, they had the funding, they had the manpower, they had the surveillance equipment, the night vision stuff, the helicopters, the overtime." In Webb's account any cop with ambition wanted assignment to the Majors, who got the biggest cases, seized the largest amounts of cash and cocaine and worked virtually unsupervised. He quoted the Los Angeles defense attorney Jay Lichtman describing them as "really the cream of the crop, the elite, the top officers of the Sheriff's Department," and wrote that since 1982 they had tangled with the Mexican mafia, street gangs, [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín cartel]] cells and international money launderers.[^1]
 
-L.A. defense attorney Jay Lichtman described them as "really the cream of the crop, the elite, the top officers of the Sheriff's Department." Since 1982 they had tangled with the Mexican mafia, street gangs, [[Medellin Cartel|Medellín cartel]] cells, and international money launderers.[^1]
+Webb also recorded the squads' off-duty reputation: a drunken crew member who pulled a pistol in a restaurant to hurry a waiter, and Deputy Daniel Garner, whom Webb called the department's best drug detective, urinating on the pants leg of an aspiring narcotics officer he judged unworthy of joining the Majors.[^1]
 
-### Culture
+### The Blandon investigation, 1986
 
-The squads also won notoriety for boozy off-duty carousing. A drunken crew member once pulled out a pistol at a restaurant to hurry along a lazy waiter. Deputy Daniel Garner, regarded as the best drug detective in the department, relieved himself on the pants leg of an aspiring narcotics officer he deemed unworthy of joining the Majors.[^1]
+The Justice Department Inspector General dated the investigation to an [[Internal Revenue Service]] inquiry into a Colombian money-laundering operation in Bell, [[California]]. On August 9, 1986, Guzzetta used that information to obtain search warrants that produced a substantial seizure of drugs and currency and an informant who described three Colombian organizations and a fourth dealer, Danilo Blandón, a "peripheral" supplier of the "black cocaine market" led by "Rick" and "Ollie" ([[Ricky Ross]] and Ollie Newell), who worked with an ex-Laguna Beach police officer, "Ronnie" ([[Ronald Lister]]). In early September 1986 Guzzetta passed the information to Deputy Sheriff [[Thomas Gordon]] of Major Violators Team II, and a team led by Sergeant Huffman began surveillance and informant work. Webb wrote that the squad analysed intelligence from the [[Torres Brothers|Torres brothers]] and concluded that the Los Angeles crack market was more disciplined than anyone had thought, with a direct pipeline through Ross and Newell to the Colombian cartels.[^1][^2]
 
-### The Blandon-Ross Investigation
+[[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] agent Aukland and [[Drug Enforcement Administration|DEA]] agent Schrettner, who were running their own cases, learned in September 1986 of the Sheriff's inquiry, shared informant information with its deputies, and in mid-October helped with surveillance of Blandón's businesses, Guerra Auto Sales and the Nicamex Taco restaurant.[^2]
 
-When Bell PD detective Jerry Guzzetta realized his "[[Project Sahara]]" investigation exceeded his capacity, his chief arranged for him to team with Majors II. Guzzetta's reports landed on the desk of Detective [[Thomas Gordon]], a sixteen-year veteran. The squad analyzed the [[Torres Brothers|Torres brothers]]' intelligence and reached the conclusion that the L.A. crack market was far more disciplined than anyone had imagined. Through two Black dealers named Rick and Ollie, the gangs had established a direct pipeline to the Colombian cartels, with access to unlimited cocaine. The Majors now had names and addresses of everyone at the top of the distribution chain - from Colombian importers to Nicaraguan middlemen to Black wholesalers controlling the [[South Central Los Angeles|South Central]] marketplace.[^1]
+On October 23, 1986, Gordon applied for search warrants for fourteen locations tied to Blandón, Lister, Roberto Aguilar, Ivan Torres and Aparicio Moreno, and Los Angeles Municipal Court Judge Glennette Blackwell signed them. The affidavit cited four sources: Guzzetta, Deputy Sheriff Richard Wenig, Aukland and Schrettner. It recited a Wenig informant's statement that Blandón was a [[Contras|Contra]] sympathizer and a founder of the [[FDN]] and that "the money and arms generated by this organization comes thru the sales of cocaine," and the informant's list of about one hundred Nicaraguan or Contra-sympathizing people said to be involved in cocaine distribution. Wenig told the LASD in 1996 and the Inspector General that he doubted he had supplied that informant.[^2]
+
+The deputies searched thirteen residences and businesses on October 27, 1986, and arrested Blandón on the strength of a small amount of cocaine the deputies said they found in his house, which he said was planted. The Inspector General recorded the following disputes about the day:
+
+Obstruction. Deputies recalled hearing, perhaps at the October 24 briefing, that federal agents did not want the LASD to proceed. Huffman's chronology, written soon after the search, states "FBI Riverside asks Majors II to hold back investigation." Aukland told the Inspector General that he and the DEA preferred no warrants be served while their own cases were developing but assisted once Gordon decided to go ahead; Huffman confirmed that the FBI and DEA cooperated. The Inspector General found no evidence of obstruction once the LASD decided to proceed.[^2]
+
+Foreknowledge. Some local officers speculated that federal agents "burned" the raids. Blandón told federal prosecutors in 1992 and the Inspector General that he had learned from his associate Carlos Rocha that FBI agents had been asking about him, had noticed he was followed, and had "cleaned everything" from his house about a month before. Lister said a former neighbor warned him a week before. The DEA agent Hector Berrellez told the Inspector General that the occupants of Aguilar's house said they were expecting the police. The Inspector General found that Blandón and others knew they were under surveillance but found no one who intentionally tipped them off.[^2] Blandón told the CIA Inspector General that no government agency warned him.[^3]
+
+The CIA. The LASD Report found, and the Inspector General found likely, that Lister told the searching deputies he had ties to the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]], as he routinely told others. Some deputies recalled Lister phoning a CIA contact, "Mr. Weekly." The Inspector General found no evidence that Lister worked for the CIA or the [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] or that the CIA intervened. Huffman recorded that Blandón's attorney Bradley Brunon telephoned on October 27 and said he thought the "CIA winked at this sort of thing" in raising funds for the Contras; Aukland repeated the remark in a November 17, 1986 teletype to FBI headquarters. Brunon told the LASD in 1996 that he did not think he made the statement, and Blandón told the CIA Inspector General that he never told his lawyer of a CIA connection.[^2][^3]
+
+Documents. Federal agents of the FBI, DEA and IRS copied the seized documents at the LASD on October 31 and November 3, 1986; a later report counted 1,112 pages. Many originals were later released to Blandón's and Lister's attorneys, others retained or destroyed under LASD guidelines. The Inspector General concluded no evidence was removed from LASD custody, but could not locate the copies in FBI files, in the files of the Los Angeles [[United States Attorney]], or at DEA, which agents said had seen them in the U.S. Attorney's office in 1990. A box of more than 1,000 pages survived in IRS files, from the agent Laura Hillhouse.[^2]
+
+Charges. The LASD dropped the possession charges against Blandón and his wife. Huffman told the Inspector General the department chose not to pursue minor state charges and transferred the evidence to federal authorities with greater resources, and that no one pressured the LASD; his chronology records "No case filed to protect on going investigation & informants" and "Very small amount of cocaine found @ 1 of 14 locations."[^2]
+
+### Operation Big Spender, 1989 to 1990
+
+On the Inspector General's account, deputies were alleged to have routinely stolen money when arresting people or serving search warrants, and to have used excessive force, committed perjury and planted drugs. A federal grand jury in February 1990 indicted ten deputies, including the head of a narcotics unit, on charges they stole $1.4 million in confiscated cash and spent it on vacations, boats, houses, luxury cars and electronics.[^4][^2] In December 1990 a federal jury convicted six deputies, all formerly of an elite narcotics squad, of stealing $48,000 in seized money and convicted a seventh of circumventing bank reporting requirements; the Associated Press reported possible prison terms of up to 53 years, and Sheriff [[Sherman Block]], who had initiated the investigation, called it a betrayal.[^4] The prosecutor in the first case was Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Eglash.[^2]
+
+The Inspector General found that several of the deputies who executed the Blandón warrants were among those later accused. Deputy Gordon, who swore the affidavit, was convicted in 1990 of federal tax charges in the Big Spender trial and declined interviews. Deputy John Hurtado admitted to LASD investigators that he took about $50,000 in cash from a briefcase in a bedroom of Blandón's house, while Deputy Daniel Garner said he found one bindle of cocaine in the house that Blandón may have left behind; no deputy admitted planting drugs.[^2]
+
+In the first Big Spender trial the defense attorney [[Harland Braun]] raised an allegation of CIA involvement in laundering drug money to the Contras and Iran, and the defense filed a motion built on documents seized from Lister's house, which it said included films of military operations in Central America, military hardware and communications manuals, and "numerous documents indicating that drug money was being used to purchase military equipment for Central America." The government obtained a motion in limine barring the subject; Eglash called it one in a series of "fantastic claims," and the trial judge said of Braun's filing that he suspected it was made "in bad faith" to reach the media. The [[San Jose Mercury News]] later wrote that a sealed ten-page document in that file "may hold the key" to the CIA, Contra and crack connection.[^2] [[Ricky Ross]] later testified as a government witness in the Big Spender prosecutions, which the Inspector General recorded among the grounds of Ross's later claim that he was targeted for his cooperation.[^2]
+
+### The 1996 LASD review
+
+After the San Jose Mercury News published Webb's "[[Dark Alliance]]" series and a follow-up headed "Affidavit: Cops Knew of Drug Ring," Sheriff Block on October 3, 1996 ordered an inquiry into whether the department knew of "alleged CIA/Contra (FDN) involvement in cocaine sales in the south central area of Los Angeles" and ignored or mishandled cases because of it. The CIA Inspector General summarized the resulting 3,600-page report, summarized by the LASD in December 1996: Lister and Blandón were Contra sympathizers, but the inquiry did not support the assertion that the FDN obtained money and arms through cocaine sales, while some supporters of the "Southern Front" (ARDE) were possibly involved in cocaine sales. It found that the CIA answered an FBI request after the warrant with background on [[Norwin Meneses]] and Orlando Murillo and no information on others, and that for each seized item there was a consistent paper trail and "no property was taken by any federal agents," an allegation it attributed to secondhand rumor among narcotics team personnel.[^3]
+
+The [[Los Angeles Police Department]] Inspector General reported to the City Council in October 1996 that its inquiry had not substantiated any LAPD knowledge of CIA involvement in narcotics trafficking.[^3]
 
 ### Footnotes
 
-[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 14: "It's bigger than I can handle"
+[^1]: Webb, Gary. *Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion.* Seven Stories Press, 1998. Chapter 14, "It's bigger than I can handle." Sole source for the passages so cited (trailers, staffing, Fossey, the Guzzetta, Lichtman and Garner anecdotes).
+[^2]: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, *The CIA-Contra-Crack Cocaine Controversy: A Review of the Justice Department's Investigations and Prosecutions* (December 1997), chapter II.E, "Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Investigation of Blandon"; chapter on Lister; and chapter IV on the Big Spender cases. https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/archive/special/9712/ch02p2.htm (text copy at https://archive.org/details/crack-oigreport).
+[^3]: Central Intelligence Agency, Office of Inspector General, *Report of Investigation: Allegations of Connections Between CIA and the Contras in Cocaine Trafficking to the United States* (96-0143-IG), Volume I, "The California Story," January 29, 1998, paragraphs 83 to 88 and 222 to 224. https://archive.org/details/ciaig-contra-crack-vols
+[^4]: "Scandals Damage LA Sheriff's Department," Associated Press, in *The Seattle Times*, December 16, 1990. https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19901216/1109823/scandals-damage-la-sheriffs-department
+[^5]: Same sources as notes 2 and 4 for the February 1990 indictment of ten deputies and the December 1990 convictions.