Federal agents and Los Angeles police cleared MacArthur Park on Thursday afternoon with military vehicles and loudspeaker warnings, arresting 13 people for quality-of-life violations as officials said the action is part of a sustained effort to reclaim the fen
Thursday afternoon at MacArthur Park, federal agents and Los Angeles police arrived in a visible show of force: military vehicles, a loudspeaker, and a warning aimed at people using narcotics that they would be subject to search and detention.
Within an hour, the park that residents and visitors have come to recognize—clusters of people hunched over smoking fentanyl or passed out on the grass—had been cleared, and 13 people had been arrested, according to L.A. Police Department Capt. Benedict Fernandes.
Fernandes said the arrests were largely for quality-of-life violations, including being under the influence of narcotics in public, drinking in public, and having encampments in the park.
At a news conference after the operation, officials emphasized that the sweep was not meant to be a one-day spectacle. Anthony Chrysanthis, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s L.A. office, said it was “not a photo op promising overnight change.”
“We’re here today to let everyone know that the change is coming, and we’re committed to doing this,” Chrysanthis said. “You will continue to see decisive enforcement around the park. We mean business.”
MacArthur Park has long been a contested symbol in Los Angeles. Once described as a crown jewel, it has been beset for years by gang violence, drug use, and crime. Those problems intensified during the pandemic. when the park became an epicenter of Los Angeles’ overdose epidemic and an open-air site for fentanyl sale and consumption.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass has made promises to clean up the park in recent years. Critics, however, say overdoses and fentanyl use have continued to be the norm.
“The local fire department spends much more time trying to revive people [from overdosing] with Narcan that were on death’s door than they do putting out fires in this area,” said L.A. County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman. “That is a reality.”
For Hochman and other officials standing on Thursday’s enforcement strategy, the message was sharper than a critique of past promises. The coalition present—leaders from the U.S. attorney’s office, the DEA, LAPD, and the L.A. County district attorney’s office—said the current effort is different.
Hochman offered a personal yardstick for success, telling the public: “Here’s my promise: Labor Day this year, 2026, I am going to come with my family, and I’m going to have a picnic in MacArthur Park,” he said. “because MacArthur Park is going to be safe enough to have that picnic.”
He urged people to get ready. “Get your picnic baskets ready,” Hochman said, and he called on the mayor and City Council members to join him.
The operation also follows a recent crackdown. Thursday’s raid came one month after another sweeping operation in the park, when federal agents and local authorities arrested 18 people, including two men believed to be key local drug suppliers, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said Thursday’s actions fit into a three-phase plan to reclaim MacArthur Park.
The first phase. Essayli said. was to dismantle the leadership of the 18th Street gang. which federal authorities allege controlled the neighborhood as an open-air drug marketplace. In March. 12 alleged associates of the gang were charged in a widespread federal indictment with murder. extortion. and drug trafficking in the MacArthur Park area.
The second phase, Essayli said, was to target the dealers and suppliers of narcotics in the neighborhood—an approach reflected in last month’s arrests.
The third and ongoing phase is a consistent law enforcement presence designed to enforce state law, which prohibits people from being under the influence of narcotics and possessing drugs with the intent to use them.
“That is critical,” Essayli said. “We have to address the demand if we want to clean up the park.”
For residents, the stakes are not theoretical. The park’s long-running cycle of overdose emergencies, visible drug use, and encampments has turned enforcement into something closer to triage—whether people are revived with Narcan, swept out of view, or pulled into the legal system.
On Thursday, the city and federal agencies chose a direct, rapid method: clear the park, make arrests, and signal persistence. Whether that persistence translates into the kind of safety Hochman promised for a family picnic by Labor Day 2026 now depends on what happens after the vehicles roll back out.
MacArthur Park fentanyl crackdown DEA LAPD Nathan Hochman Bill Essayli Anthony Chrysanthis Karen Bass overdose epidemic 18th Street gang Narcan