Official: Calif. police attacks carried out by man trying to derail drug investigation

Official: CA police attacks aimed at drug probe

LOS ANGELES — A law enforcement official says the main suspect in a string of booby trap attacks against the Hemet Police Department in Southern California was targeting an officer who previously arrested him on a drug charge.

Karl Anglin, the assistant special agent in charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Los Angeles, said Tuesday that Nicholas Smit was trying to sabotage a criminal case against him after his arrest last year for marijuana cultivation.

Anglin says Smit believed he could derail proceedings by targeting the officer who arrested him.

Authorities suspect Smit of carrying out a string of attacks, usually around the time of court hearings in the marijuana case.

Smit was arrested Friday and has not yet made a court appearance. A telephone listing for Smit cannot be located.