A massive operation targeting the “notorious open-air drug market” in MacArthur Park in Los Angeles began Wednesday, according to a Justice Dept. statement.
Details of “Operation Free MacArthur Park” were posted on social media by Bill Essayli, the first assistant United States attorney for the Central District of California.
At least 19 kilograms of fentanyl and 17 arrests were initially reported in the operation targeting the ‘notorious open-air drug market.’
“We are going after street dealers and suppliers of massive amounts of fentanyl and methamphetamine,” he wrote. “Over the last 24 hours, federal and local law enforcement have started arresting 25 defendants charged in a federal criminal complaint with possessing and distributing dangerous narcotics, including fentanyl and methamphetamine.”
At least 19 kilograms of fentanyl and 17 arrests were initially reported in the operation targeting the “notorious open-air drug market” as described by Essayli.
He said the top drug trafficker, a resident of Calabasas, was already in federal custody and faced life in prison if convicted. Other defendants also faced decades in prison.
Essayli also posted video from the operation showing the many officers involved.
More than 300 agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency, the Department of Justice, and the Los Angeles Police Dept. were included, according to a Fox News report.
“The LAPD is currently assisting our federal partners in a joint narcotics enforcement operation in the MacArthur Park Area. This operation is focused solely on drug‑related criminal activity,” reads a statement from the LAPD on social media.
“There is no connection to immigration enforcement,” it added.
A video from the California Post showed many of the suspects being arrested or detained.
“We are attacking the open-air drug market that’s been allowed to proliferate under California policies for too long. You go down there, and there’s people actively selling fentanyl, methamphetamine. There’s people using in the open,” Essalyi said in an interview on the scene.
“To the drug dealers poisoning the streets of Los Angeles: your safe haven is gone,” Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche wrote.
The DEA indicated that one of the goals of the operation was “cleaning up the community” before the World Cup and Olympics.
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Ironically, Democratic Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass angrily denounced federal agents during another similar operation at MacArthur Park in July 2025.
“This is footage from today in MacArthur Park. Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through,” she wrote on social media at the time. “The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous.”
Federal officials denied that she had been able to shut down the operation.
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Cartel macarthur park drugs, Massive drug bust los angeles, Operation free macarthur park, Federal operation los angeles, Politics
