Raiding Humboldt
A botched narcotics raid on a cloudy Humboldt afternoon in 1972 would forever escalate the war on drugs.
Dirk Dickenson and his girlfriend Judy Arnold enjoyed their off grid homesteaded on Pratt mountain in Humboldt County, California. Their quiet life on the hill would end without warning in 1972.
During routine aerial surveillance, deputy sheriff Mel Ames claimed to have spotted a “multi million dollar meth lab” on Dickenson’s property. Returning to the station, a narcotics raid was planned on the remote farm. As the raiding party pumped themselves up at the station for their impending bust, they boasted to reporters the raid would be the biggest narcotics raid in Humboldt history.
Wanting the event documented the police allowed Times-Standard and a newscast to send a reporters with the raiding party.
“Raiding party of narcotics agents race toward cabin of (late) Dirk Dickenson on April 4, 1972; army helicopter from Presidio [in San Francisco] carried raiders to scene, a remote section of Humboldt County near Alderpoint.” Pratt Mountain, California
“Looks like an assault on an enemy prison camp in Vietnam.”
– TS reporter Richard Harris scribbled on his notepad as he witnessed the raid
As the Huey helicopter landed on the front yard, Dirk Dickenson and his girlfriend Judy Arnold waved in excitement from the cabins front window at the unusual site. The doors of the helicopter swung opened as heavily armed men in plain cloths poured out rushing towards the cabin.
Excitement turned to fear as the unmarked heavily armed agents started kicking in the cabins door. When it became unclear on who the raiding party was, Dirk Dickenson fearing for his safety ran for his life out the back door of the cabin.
As the plain clothed agents chased the unarmed Dickenson through the tree’s behind the cabin, an agent tripped. Lloyd Clifton, an agent with the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, claimed he thought the clumsy agent was shot and fired into the back of the fleeing Dickenson claiming “At the time I thought it was necessary to prevent Dickenson from escaping”.
The raid on the ‘multi million dollar lab’ in the forest would only find a personal amount of drugs after tearing up Dickenson’s cabin.
As stories from the on scene reporters were told, trigger happy Agent Clifton was charged with second-degree murder in the unarmed shooting.
Although the shooting was directly forbidden in the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (DEA predecessor) manual “the agent should not shoot at any persons except to protect his own life or that of some other person. The agent will not fire at fleeing automobiles, suspects or defendants.”, officer Lloyd Clifton would be cleared of the crime with the federal judge stating it “falls into the category of justifiable homicide.”
Rolling Stones cover May 1973 about the murder