9 at Kaiser Center Seized in Drug Trafficking Bust

Nine employees of Kaiser Permanente’s San Diego Medical Center were arrested Wednesday and Thursday on suspicion of possessing and selling illegal drugs on the hospital’s Zion Avenue premises, San Diego police said.

Narcotics detectives, aided by a private investigating firm that was called in by the hospital’s administration to look into alleged narcotics transactions, arrested seven of the suspects at the hospital at 11:30 p.m. Wednesday. They arrested another suspected dealer early Thursday and the last arrest took place Thursday afternoon, Lt. Connie van Putten said.

The employees arrested were not involved in patient-care jobs but were part of the “groundskeeping and housekeeping” staff, Van Putten said. The narcotics being sold and traded were not prescription drugs, but included cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines, Van Putten said.

Janet Seib, a spokeswoman for the Southern California Kaiser Permanente regional office in Pasadena, said private investigators had been working to uncover the drug trafficking operation for “several months.”

“This is intended to send a clear message that we won’t tolerate the trading of illegal narcotics on our premises,” Seib said.

She said hospital and administrative officials initiated the investigation after noticing narcotics transactions “between employees” on hospital grounds. Seib added that patients under the care of Kaiser Permanente were not involved in the illegal drug transactions.

The San Diego police narcotics division was not involved in the investigation until the arrests, Van Putten said, adding that police were kept informed of the inquiry by private detectives.

Neither the police nor the hospital spokeswoman would estimate the street value of the drugs or reveal the quantity of drugs confiscated.

Arrested and booked into San Diego County Jail on various charges of possessing, selling or transporting drugs were James Thomas, 28, of San Diego; Mark Michael Allen, 27, of San Diego; Dwight R. Malone, 26; Ernie Lynn Martinez, 27, of San Diego; Anthony Louis Smith, 24, of San Diego; Robert Patrick Pratt, 39, of Spring Valley, and Richard Estrada, 34; Yousoff Hanna, 30, and Ricky Lee Butler, 30, all of El Cajon. Thomas, Allen, Malone, Hanna and Butler later were released on their own recognizance. Martinez was held on $6,000 bond, Smith on $10,000 bond, and Pratt and Estrada were both held on $3,000 bond.