Keep Bailing

Chief Neal Tyler of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department announced that 43 gang members had been arrested. Originally a Pasadena area gang, they had extended their operation into Antelope Valley, which is where the arrest occurred.

The resulting arrests took place due to a partnership operation involving several different police forces. In total, approximately 400 police officers helped to perform the arrests, which included the help from; Antelope Valley Crime Fighting Initiative, California State Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Los Angeles County Probation Department, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department-Operation Safe Streets Bureau, United States Drug Enforcement Administration Mobile Enforcement Team, and United States Drug Enforcement Administration High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.

Within 80 locations throughout the Antelope Valley, probation and parole searches took place, which also including thirty-two different served search warrants. The suspects were under suspicion of housing weapons and trafficking cocaine.

During the search, law enforcement officers found nearly three pounds of crack cocaine and 114 grams of cocaine powder. Five handguns and an assault weapon were found, that added to the ten firearms that had previously been taken during an ongoing investigation.

Also several credit cards as well as phone service information used for stealing identities was found, although the entire operation was conducted for the gang to sell narcotics.

On August 4, a federal grand jury indicted 23 individuals which resulted in these arrests. Authorities found 16 of who had been listed on the indictment, but are still searching for six others. Twenty-six fellow gang members were also arrested on different criminal charges and probation violations.

In July of 2009, a gang member from the Pasadena area shot and wounded Deputy Giovanni Lampignano, of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department. This incident is what caused the ongoing investigation. The gang member, Dejon Ray King, who was responsible for shooting Lampignano, was convicted of attempted murder on a peace officer in a California state court in June. King was sentenced to 38 years to life.

The gang’s identification has not been disclosed at this time.