Real Life ’21 Jump Street’ Cop Returns to High School

Real Life '21 Jump Street' Cop Returns to High School

The comedy duo actors Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, may be making a joke in the movie in their undercover assignment in the movie"21 Jump Street,” but a real-life police officer in the name of Alex Salinas, 22, spent his last eight months of assignment posing as a high school student to bust a major drug ring in Central California.

Salinas, who looked young enough to pass as a high school student, used the alias Johnny Ramirez, and enrolled at Exeter Union High School, located in southeast Fresno.  He was especially chosen by Exeter Police Chief Cliff Bush to be a part of this undercover mission.

"My first day I almost introduced myself as Alex to a few people and I had to catch myself," Salinas told ABC News.

The police officer did everything to blend in, even doing his homework. In order to give reports to the investigator assigned to this case, Salinas, a.k.a Johnny Ramirez, told his classmates he had to leave everyday after lunch to help his “uncle” (the investigator) at work.

"In the beginning of the year I left at lunch and supposedly went to work with my uncle, but I was really going back to the narcotics office and doing homework and reports. It was a shock. I'm a cop and now I'm doing homework?," Salinas recounted.

Bush had been planning for it, after complaints from parents and students of drug sales and narcotic use on campus - but he needed the right person in order to pull off an operation usually found in a Hollywood script.

Finally, Chief Bush found his man who "looks 17 and the braces add to the effect," Bush said. (Yes, Alex Salinas has braces!) Once Bush approached Salinas, the young officer took the assignment to heart immediately.

After training for three weeks with the local narcotics unit, Salinas put on jeans, grabbed his backpack and went back to school. Salinas says he was always on his toes, so he wouldn't blow his cover. Although they controlled some of his social interactions, Salinas even attended some football games.

The same week the movie "21 Jump Street" premiered in Hollywood, Salinas, wearing his police uniform, helped arrest 12 students ranging from 15 to 19 of age, and two non-students in the drug ring. They were charged of selling marijuana, prescription pills and cocaine. Salinas told ABC News there were even drug deals going on inside classrooms.

Chief Bush and Exeter City Manager Randy Groom said they were unaware that the movie was even coming out the same week as the bust, and that it was all just a coincidence.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Monday April 02 2012, 4:03 AM EDT. Ref: Google. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0