LASD Major Violators

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 Blandón-Ross cocaine network, the largest crack distribution operation uncovered in Los Angeles up to that time.¹

Structure and Resources

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

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, Medellín cartel cells, and international money launderers.¹

Culture

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 Blandon-Ross Investigation

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' 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 marketplace.¹