Aldama Street Heroin Bust Could be Related to Organized Crime

The arrest of a suspect Wednesday from an Aldama Street residence in connection with the dealing of heroin in Long Beach may or may not be connected to the Highland Park gang, but it does suggest the involvement of organized crime, according to Los Angeles Police Department Northeast Division Capt. Jeff Bert.

The suspect, Domingo Payan, 56, was arrested from a house on the 5300 block of Aldama Street

after detectives of the Long Beach Police Department’s Drug Investigations Section served a warrant there, according to a spokesperson at the department’s media relations section.

As much as six pounds of heroin and $46,000 in cash were recovered from the house, according to a news statement by the Long Beach police, which added that a bail of $100,000 had been set on Payan. (Another suspect, Oscar Salmoran, 21, of Bell Gardens, was arrested Tuesday, and three-and-a-half pounds of heroin and two-and-a-half pounds of crystal methamphetamine were confiscated from him. Salmoran is being held at the Long Beach City Jail without bail.) 

Neither the Long Beach police LAPD’s Bert had any information, however, whether Payan has gang connections in Highland Park.

What Bert did confirm is that the local gang that goes by the name of Highland Park is a violent and “very active drug gang.”

However, the fact that the Long Beach case revolves around a large quantity of drugs does suggest the involvement of organized crime, most probably the Mexican Mafia, Bert told Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch.