An employee working for a nonprofit organization was arrested with dozens of pills in his possession at a Downey juvenile hall on Monday, months after several youths overdosed at the facility.
Alejandro Lopez was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment and drug possession after he was found holding roughly 170 “white pills” inside Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall around 11:30 a.m., according to a news release from the L.A. County Probation Department, which oversees the halls.
The department said officers noticed Lopez was “engaged in some suspicious activity” and approached him shortly before finding the pills. They are believed to be Xanax, but lab tests must be conducted to confirm that, according to Vicky Waters, a Probation Department spokeswoman.
“This type of behavior is unacceptable and represents a clear threat to the safety and well-being of the youth and staff in our institutions,” county Chief Probation Officer Guillermo Viera Rosa said in a statement. “We are grateful for the swift action of our investigative team and our law enforcement partners. We remain committed to ensuring a secure environment for youth, staff, and our community partners.”
Probation officials said Lopez works for Student Nest, which, according to its website, is a Fresno-based tutoring service that provides programs focused on math, science, English and robotics.
Attempts to contact the company were not immediately successful Monday night. It was not immediately clear whether Lopez had legal representation.
Drugs in the county’s juvenile halls have been a major concern since the May 2023 overdose death of 18-year-old Bryan Diaz at the Secure Youth Treatment Facility in Sylmar.
This year, three youths were hospitalized after suffering drug overdoses in Los Padrinos, just days after probation officials found a large quantity of Xanax inside the hall.
A probation officer was charged with helping smuggle Xanax into Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall in Sylmar in June.
