Heroin

A 26-year-old parolee pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of selling heroin at a Montrose strip mall parking lot, officials said. Vaghan Stepanyan, who is on parole for a grand theft conviction, faces six felony counts for drug sales, possessing a controlled substance and firearm violations, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint. Two other men - Tigran Zmrukhtyan, 19, of Pasadena and Nverik Yaghoomian, 26, of Glendale - also were charged with possessing a controlled substance after they allegedly purchased heroin in an alley and tried to rid of it when Glendale police spotted them.

Police on Monday arrested a 28-year-old Canyon Country man who was supplying drugs to people in Glendale, officials said. The man, Haik Avagyan, had more than 2 ounces of heroin, a large bag of marijuana, drug packaging and two rifles inside his Canyon Country home at the time of his arrest, Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. The drugs had a street value of about $20,000, he added. He was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance for sale and an outstanding warrant for violating a promise to appear in court or pay a fine, according to Glendale police reports.

GLENDALE — Four men were arrested Thursday on suspicion of trafficking more than $340,000 worth of heroin and cocaine, part of which police said was intended to supply a growing demand among teens in La Crescenta. Detectives discovered more than two pounds of powder heroin hidden inside the dashboard of a Sun Valley man’s car, and found another two pounds of cocaine, a handgun and thousands of dollars inside a North Hollywood home after following it there, Glendale Police Sgt. Scott Johnstone said.

MONTROSE — Two adults and two teens were arrested Thursday night after Glendale police reportedly confiscated 36 balloons of heroin following a two-week investigation into what officials say is becoming a growing addiction among local youth. Samantha Rofloc, 18, of Montrose, James Hamilton, 20, of La Crescenta, and a 17-year-old boy and 16 year-old girl, both from Montrose, were arrested on suspicion of possessing the heroin during a reported drug sale in the parking lot of a Mobil Station in the 2100 block of Verdugo Boulevard, police said.

Amber Willard GLENDALE -- Glendale Police have arrested a Sun Valley couple, accusing them of sending heroin to inmates at two state prisons as part of an operation for the Mexican Mafia. Jose Ayala, 45, and his wife Candelaria, 43, were charged Monday in a San Fernando courtroom on state charges and could face federal charges because they sent packages via the U.S. Postal Service, officials said. "This couple was the main supplier at Lancaster State Prison," Investigator Luis Pasache said Thursday of the seriousness of the case.

Darleene Barrientos Two men were held Friday, one in Glendale City Jail and the other at Glendale Memorial Hospital, on suspicion of buying and selling drugs, respectively, police said. Undercover Glendale Police narcotics investigators searched Gagik Torosyan, 30, of Glendale, Thursday after watching him get into a car, then get out after a slow, brief drive down the a street near the corner of Barrington Way and Verdugo Road, said Glendale Police spokeswoman Sherri Servillo.

CITY HALL — All drug-related offenses in January investigated by Glendale police in the Crescenta Valley were attributed to heroin, an increasingly popular opiate among youth in the region, Police Chief Ron De Pompa said Tuesday. Heroin use has been escalating in the Crescenta Valley in the past five years as more high school students and young adults have become hooked, he said during a presentation on drug use in north Glendale to the City Council. “For years and years, La Crescenta seemed to be untouched by a lot of the big-city ailments that we started experiencing in the rest of the community, and we are starting to see a change in that now,” he said.

LA CRESCENTA — A 32-year-old Los Angeles man will be arraigned Monday after his arrest in connection with selling heroin to La Crescenta teens. Fernando Rosales Garcia, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, was arrested Thursday on suspicion of selling and transporting heroin, Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. Garcia is scheduled to appear before a Los Angeles County Criminal Court judge on Monday, Lorenz said. Garcia’s apprehension follows the arrests of three other undocumented immigrants from Guatemala in May who detectives discovered also were selling heroin to teens in La Crescenta, Lorenz said.

Police arrested three men on Monday after allegedly finding more than $400,000 worth of drugs, including opium, heroin and methamphetamine, inside their Los Angeles apartment. Brian Garcia, 25, Erick Gastelum, 28, and Jose Garcia, 50, were taken into custody about 4 p.m. on suspicion of possessing drugs for sale, Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. “They ran the gamut when it came to the drugs,” he said. Narcotics detectives seized 20 pounds of opium, two pounds of heroin, 1 1/2 pounds of methamphetamine, a pound of marijuana and a gram of cocaine inside their apartment in the 6600 block of North Figueroa Street, Lorenz said.

A 26-year-old parolee pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of selling heroin at a Montrose strip mall parking lot, officials said. Vaghan Stepanyan, who is on parole for a grand theft conviction, faces six felony counts for drug sales, possessing a controlled substance and firearm violations, according to a Los Angeles County Superior Court criminal complaint. Two other men - Tigran Zmrukhtyan, 19, of Pasadena and Nverik Yaghoomian, 26, of Glendale - also were charged with possessing a controlled substance after they allegedly purchased heroin in an alley and tried to rid of it when Glendale police spotted them.

This is the last in a four-part series exploring the impacts of heroin use on the greater Glendale area. In 1897, German chemist Heinrich Dreser catapulted two drugs to international fame, making the Bayer pharmaceutical company a household name. One was aspirin. The other, heroin, marketed as a cough suppressant, was an alternative to morphine and its addictive qualities. It only took a year for the truth to unravel. Bayer stopped making heroin in 1913, and the drug's sale and manufacture were banned by Congress in 1924, but the chaos had already been created.

Lives ravaged by heroin. Kids sniffing body sprays and dust removers to get high. Think you know what “bath crystals” are for? Think again. It seems every week, there's a new drug trend, a new method for getting high. Unfortunately, the ever-changing landscape of drug use continually challenges our youth - and the adults charged with their safety. If our series on heroin use by columnist Liana Aghajanian is any indication, we haven't been strong enough to stem the tide.

This is the third in a four part series exploring the impacts of heroin use on the greater Glendale area. On a Friday morning at the New Way Foundation rehab facility in Burbank, 20 men slowly crowd into a room. The stark white walls are covered in motivational posters. The blue door swings back and they sit down. Their offenses are varied. For some it's alcohol, for others heroin. For a few, cocaine or meth. Their backgrounds are varied too: They're Armenian, Indian, Latino, biracial and white.

Seven years ago, an 18-year-old La Crescenta man was prescribed Vicodin after a routine surgical procedure. The prescription was all it took for a blossoming painkiller addiction to comfortably settle in. In 2009, when the pills became too expensive to procure without a prescription - sometimes going for up to $80 a pill - he tried heroin for the first time at the age of 22. He agreed to be interviewed about his experiences on...

Police on Monday arrested a 28-year-old Canyon Country man who was supplying drugs to people in Glendale, officials said. The man, Haik Avagyan, had more than 2 ounces of heroin, a large bag of marijuana, drug packaging and two rifles inside his Canyon Country home at the time of his arrest, Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. The drugs had a street value of about $20,000, he added. He was arrested on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance for sale and an outstanding warrant for violating a promise to appear in court or pay a fine, according to Glendale police reports.

A 27-year-old Glendale man was arrested early Saturday for allegedly driving his car into a police officer who was investigating his vehicle. The officer was patrolling his area about 2:40 a.m. when he noticed Garegin Galstyan's green Honda Civic parked on Maurita Place, east of Howard Street, according to police reports. In the past, the officer had contacted Galstyan, an alleged heroin addict on probation for possession of narcotics, according to reports. The officer drove by the Honda and saw Galstyan in the driver's seat crouched over over the center console, police said.

SOUTH GLENDALE — A 39-year-old man was arrested at his home Thursday night on suspicion of possessing more than 10 ounces of heroin for sale near a school for students with severe developmental disabilities, police said. The man's 8-year-old son was in the house during the arrest. Glendale narcotics detectives saw Albert Ghazarian sell the drug to three people at his home in the 900 block of East Harvard Street, Sgt. Tom Lorenz said. Ghazarian's home is a block away from Tobinworld.

GLENDALE — A suspected heroin dealer is facing charges of possessing drugs and assaulting two police detectives in April after allegedly trying to run them over with his car in Pacoima, according to a criminal complaint. Glendale police arrested Vicente Guzman, 28, of Pacoima after being released last month from Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he was being treated for a gunshot wound, police said. He is scheduled to appear in Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday after pleading not guilty May 21 to two felony counts of assault on a peace officer, a felony count of selling, transporting or offering to sell a controlled substance and a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, according to the criminal complaint.