LOS ANGELES -- Nightclub owner Eddie Nash, his 280-pound body guard and three women have been released on $250,000 bail for drug charges stemming from a police raid on his home that netted authorities two pounds of cocaine worth an estimates million dollars on the street.
Led by a police SWAT team, who kicked in the front door and shattered a glass sliding door in the rear of the house, narcotics and homicide detectives and agents of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms swooped down on Nash's home Wednesady.
Nash, whose name has surfaced in the investigation into four murders in nearby Laurel Canyon, operates the often-closed Starwood Club in Hollywood.
He is awaiting trial on drug charges stemming from a previous raid on the club which turned up large amounts of drugs. He is also the focal point of narcotics, murder and arson investigations by local and federal authorities.
While Nash has denied any knowledge of the Laurel Canyon killings, his bodyguard, Gregory Diles, has been described in court by a judge as a 'possible suspect' in the murder investigation. Police have taken blood, saliva and hair samples from Diles for comparison with evidence that may have been found at the murder scene.
Earlier this month, the body of former Nash employee Dominic Fragomeli, 24, Danbury, Conn., was found in Nash's Studio City apartment.
An autopsy showed substantial amounts of cocaine and a derivative of heroin in the man's body, providing a legal basis for Wednesday's search warrant, police spokesman Lt. Dan Cooke said.
Fragomeli's death was listed as accidental and no charges were filed at the time.
Booked Wednesday for possession of drugs for sale were Nash, whose real name is Adel Nasrallah, 52; Diles, 33; Jennifer Ballew, 20; Deseri Jones and Jamie McGuan, both 21.
The District Attorney's office will determine Monday what charges, if any, will be filed against the five.
It was the second such police action at Nash's home in four months. On July 10, a narcotics raid resulted in a shootout between police and Nash's bodyguard. There were no injuries.
Investigators said they found two pounds of highly pure cocaine during Wednesday's raid that was stored in a safe. Street value of the drug was estimated by police at $1 million.
Police also said they confiscated a small amount of opium, old paintings, a shotgun and an automatic pistol found next to Nash's bed. Cooke said the paintings and other art objects will be checked to determine if they are stolen.
'There is that poossibility,' he said. 'They appear to be very valuable art objects and paintings.'
Nash declined to speak with reporters Wednesday but his attorney denounced the raid as 'the same kind of fishing expedition we've seen for months and months. It was the same kind of harassment.'
In late June, Nash and Diles were robbed by gunmen at Nash's home. Less than two days later the brutal killings occured at the Laurel Canyon house of a known drug dealer. Detectives have said there is a possible connection between the robbery at Nash's home and the slayings.
Also mentioned in the investigation of the Laurel Canyon killings is sex movie star John Holmes. An unnamed 'witness' told a newspaper that Holmes planned the Nash robbery with two of the people who were later killed in Laurel Canyon. Holmes' whereabouts are unknown, police said.
