Dozens of people face drug-felony charges after a three-month-long drug sting conducted at military housing in San Diego.
Of the 33 people arrested, two were sailors, one was separated from the military; the others were civilians. There are 19 other suspects in the case, investigators said.
Officials said they launched Operation Endless Summer in the fall of 2008. Investigators said they seized $19,000 in cash, two pounds of crystal meth; one-half pound of powdered cocaine, one gram of heroin; more than 75 Oxycontin pills, 100 Ecstasy pills, more than 400 marijuana plants; six pounds of marijuana and seven guns.
"This operation has rounded up drug dealers who were jeopardizing public safety in military housing," said county District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. "The dedicated men and women serving in the military, along with their families, deserve a drug-free environment where they live."
"I think the message here is clear: Don't mess with the military," Dumanis said. "We want to protect them like they're protecting us."
In an article published Monday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported fourteen of those arrested were medical-marijuana patients who said they thought they were supplying pot to chronically ill people.
“I'm not in the military, and not a single person I know tried to sell to the military,” Donna Lambert, a cancer survivor who runs a medical-marijuana collective and was arrested on suspicion of illegally selling drugs told the paper.
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The district attorney, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives and the San Diego Police Department all cooperated in the investigation.
To read more of the report and the responses from some of those involved in the bust, go to this article in the San Diego Union Tribune.
