The "Drug Wars" (16) Los Angeles ca 1981

"Great meal, but the show was rather boring."

"I'll get the check. Waiter? Waiter? Waiter?.............


One of the stereotypes you hear about LA is that it is so laid back, so blase. That reputation may be taking a hit in the light of the gang killings of recent years, but in certain pockets, I suppose it still holds true. One personal experience illustrates that blase attitude.

While stationed with DEA in LA back in the early 1980s, I had occasion to work undercover with a fellow agent. In this particular case, we were posing as heroin buyers and negotiating a purchase of about a kilo from some Thai nationals who ran a Thai restaurant in Hollywood.

On the day of the purchase, we arrived at the restaurant and concluded negotiations with the three suspects. In the late afternoon, they dispatched a woman to go and pick up the heroin to deliver to us at the restaurant. The plan was that upon delivery, we would call our associate to deliver the money.

A few hours passed as we waited in the restaurant. Dinnertime arrived, and soon the place was full of diners. Eventually, the heroin was delivered. We checked it out in a back room, after which I placed a call to the "money man" (actually surveilling agents) letting them know the heroin had been delivered. This was the signal for the bust.

A couple of minutes later, agents burst into the restaurant, guns drawn while a huge LA Sheriff's Deputy in uniform blocked the front door with a shotgun at port arms. At this point, one of the suspects tried to escape from the restaurant through the dining area. I grabbed him (with my gun to his head) and subdued him. As I was subduing him, I noticed that the diners were quietly going about their meal-no screaming, no ducking under tables-nothing. One man looked up at me while I was wrestling with the suspect-then went back to his plate.

Now that was BLASE.

Once we had secured the suspects and the dope, we all left en route to book them at our office and deliver them to the LA County Jail.

And the diners? They kept right on eating-for free.