Left Coast Police Crack Down on Gangs- LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-062105gang_lat,0,4703548.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Police Stage Massive Gang Raid
Members of the Vineland Boys gang are suspected in the shooting deaths of two police officers.
By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers
10:37 AM PDT, June 21, 2005
Hundreds of heavily armed police officers descended on neighborhoods across Southern California before dawn today, arresting two dozen gang members who authorities say have been involved in drug dealing and violence that included the slayings of two police officers.
The raids targeting the Vineland Boyz street gang culminated an 18-month investigation by the Los Angeles and Burbank police departments, as well as the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. attorney's office.
Backed by seven special weapons and tactics teams, armored vehicles and nine helicopters, officers served search warrants at 42 locations in Sun Valley and Los Angeles, and as far as the Antelope and Simi valleys and Bakersfield.
Dubbed "Silent Night," the predawn crackdown was one of the largest law enforcement multi-operation agency operations of its kind in the area.
Some 1,300 members of the operation filled the Burbank High School Auditorium to capacity at 1 a.m. during a pre-raid briefing.
Officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as well as the Glendale and Pasadena police departments and the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms participated.
The suspects, most of whom were named in federal grand jury indictments, are accused of violating federal drug and weapons laws.The gang became the focus of law enforcement in November 2003 when reputed gang member David Garcia fatally shot Burbank Police Officer Matthew Pavelka near Bob Hope Airport and then fled across the Mexican border before being captured 13 days later by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Authorities believe Vineland Boyz members were also responsible for the 1998 killing of James Beyea, an LAPD officer who was shot during a burglary.
Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said the gang was a "major criminal enterprise."
By dawn, officers had arrested nearly half of the 43 gang members being sought.
The gang has 259 documented members, Bratton said. In the past 18 months, he said, authorities have arrested 231 suspected Violent Boyz members and seized 25 cars, 75 firearms, more than 300 pounds of narcotics and more than $500,000.
Police Stage Massive Gang Raid
Members of the Vineland Boys gang are suspected in the shooting deaths of two police officers.
By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers
10:37 AM PDT, June 21, 2005
Hundreds of heavily armed police officers descended on neighborhoods across Southern California before dawn today, arresting two dozen gang members who authorities say have been involved in drug dealing and violence that included the slayings of two police officers.
The raids targeting the Vineland Boyz street gang culminated an 18-month investigation by the Los Angeles and Burbank police departments, as well as the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and U.S. attorney's office.
Backed by seven special weapons and tactics teams, armored vehicles and nine helicopters, officers served search warrants at 42 locations in Sun Valley and Los Angeles, and as far as the Antelope and Simi valleys and Bakersfield.
Dubbed "Silent Night," the predawn crackdown was one of the largest law enforcement multi-operation agency operations of its kind in the area.
Some 1,300 members of the operation filled the Burbank High School Auditorium to capacity at 1 a.m. during a pre-raid briefing.
Officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department as well as the Glendale and Pasadena police departments and the Marshals Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms participated.
The suspects, most of whom were named in federal grand jury indictments, are accused of violating federal drug and weapons laws.The gang became the focus of law enforcement in November 2003 when reputed gang member David Garcia fatally shot Burbank Police Officer Matthew Pavelka near Bob Hope Airport and then fled across the Mexican border before being captured 13 days later by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Authorities believe Vineland Boyz members were also responsible for the 1998 killing of James Beyea, an LAPD officer who was shot during a burglary.
Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton said the gang was a "major criminal enterprise."
By dawn, officers had arrested nearly half of the 43 gang members being sought.
The gang has 259 documented members, Bratton said. In the past 18 months, he said, authorities have arrested 231 suspected Violent Boyz members and seized 25 cars, 75 firearms, more than 300 pounds of narcotics and more than $500,000.
posted by Steve Nawojczyk at 6:19 AM
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