L.A. grandmother sold heroin with grandkids: police

L.A. grandmother sold heroin with grandkids: police
By Dan Whitcomb
Tue Jul 31, 5:05 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A 39-year-old grandmother accused of selling heroin on the streets of a Los Angeles suburb with her 11-year-old granddaughter as a lookout has been arrested on drug and child endangerment charges, police said on Tuesday.

Undercover officers watched for two weeks as Martha Gutierrez Novas sold heroin at a bus stop in Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, clutching a brown and white Chihuahua and often with her granddaughter at her side, a police spokesman said.

"The granddaughter acted as a lookout, standing at the corner of the building looking, I assume, for police officers," said Sgt. Paul LeBaron, a Long Beach spokesman. "It's horrible. Absolutely horrible. I've never seen anything this blatant. She just didn't even care."

Novas was found with a bag of heroin and cocaine when she was taken into custody on Monday, LeBaron said, and a search of her home turned up two ounces of heroin and a large amount of cash.

He said Novas, who faces charges of drug sales and possession as well as child endangerment and was being held on $100,000 bail, refused to tell police who was supplying her with the drugs.

LeBaron said that Novas' immigration status was under investigation and that Child and Family Services officials were also probing the matter.

He said Novas also sometimes sold drugs with her 4-year-old granddaughter present. Neither child was charged.

"This lady was pretty much going to the same spot all day long during the daylight hours selling to a large clientele," LeBaron said. "Any time during the day you could go out there and find her."

It was not clear how much jail time Novas could face, if convicted.

39 with an 11 year old granddaughter? Means she was 28 when her grandaughter was born? That totally doesn't compute...

14 when her daughter was born, and her daughter followed in her footsteps.

happens all the damn time

You'd think the grandmother would try to stop her daughter from walking that path too, though. I mean, it can't be easy.

Then again, she's slinging coke, so she probably whored her daughter out at 14.

Thank you, I read that article and the only thing that kept running through my mind was "39 with an 11 year old granddaughter?" That's just not right. Hos. all of 'em. in ten years she'll be a great grandmother. ick.