Baldwin Park : Authorities Raid 5 Motels

Baldwin Park police served search warrants early Thursday on five motels where prostitution and drug dealing have been a problem, Sgt. Michael R. Taylor said.

Officials from the Internal Revenue Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and city Fire Department, as well as city code enforcement officials and county health officials, accompanied officers to conduct simultaneous investigations.

The raids, which Taylor said netted documents but no arrests, mark a final push to clean up a stretch of Garvey Avenue increasingly plagued by crime over the past three years.

In June, a similar multi-agency raid shut down the Lucky 7 motel in the 14200 block of Garvey. The owners are currently under investigation for tax evasion, Taylor said. The B & B Motel, in the same block, was also temporarily shut down in a previous raid, but police searched the motel again Thursday, he said.

Also searched were the Plaza Motel, in the 14300 block of Garvey Avenue; the Crazy 8 Motel, in the 12900 block of Garvey; the Queen’s Lodge, in the 14400 block of Merced, and the Royal Knight, in the 13400 block of Garvey, Taylor said.

Taylor said gang members are believed to have sold drugs out of all the motels.