Gang sweep of SM Valley makes 25 arrests

By Janene Scully/Associate Editor
The Lompoc Record

September 11, 2008

A multi-agency gang sweep in the Santa Maria Valley resulted in 25 arrests and should send a message to street gang members committing crimes that “we’ve had enough,” authorities said Wednesday morning.

The arrests marked the debut of an FBI-led task force working on the Central Coast in conjunction with local police officers, sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors to target criminal activity connected to street gangs.

“I think they’re going to realize, as they’re starting to realize in other parts of the (federal) district, that people in the community have had enough and … we’re going to do everything possible to make the streets as safe as we can,” said Thomas P. O’Brien, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California.

“I think today’s enforcement action sends two messages — number one is, it shows the nexus between criminal street gangs and violent crime and illicit sales of narcotics,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown said. “The second thing that it shows is the remarkable synergy that can be achieved when federal and local authorities join together to combat this problem that plagues our community.”

Wednesday morning’s effort involved 75 law enforcement officers, and 11 defendants were arrested on federal and state charges. They are among 25 people arrested recently in relation to criminal activity associated with the Northwest gang, whose members have been involved in illegal activity for decades, O’Brien said.

Federal prosecutors have charged 17 people related to the Northwest gang — several of whom face the potential of life sentences or other lengthy terms in federal prison.

The federal defendants were involved with sales of large quantities of methamphetamine — “in some cases quarter-pound amounts,” O’Brien said. Authorities also seized a number of weapons, including handguns and an assault weapon.

Santa Barbara County prosecutors have charged the remaining eight defendants.

Most of those arrested were Santa Maria residents, although men from Oceano and Nipomo also were swept up.

Between four and six people are still wanted by federal and local authorities.

The enforcement effort arose from the FBI’s Central Coast Safe Streets Task Force, which worked in conjunction with the Santa Maria Police Department, sheriff’s departments and district attorneys in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, and other agencies.

Joining federal representatives at a Wednesday morning press conference in Santa Maria were Macagni, Brown, San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges and Santa Barbara County District Attorney Christie Stanley.

“The formalized efforts by the agencies joining me here today should send a message to the violent offenders that gang violence will be fought vigorously to safeguard the Central Coast residents,” added Dan McMullen, special agent-in-charge of the criminal division in the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

The Central Coast task force, formed earlier this year, joined five others created in the federal agency’s district that also includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The FBI approach treats gangs as an organized crime faction, and aims at disrupting and dismantling a gang’s activities using federal and local agencies, McMullen said.

Federal prosecutors will sit down with county prosecutors to review charges against the defendants to assess if they would face longer sentences in the state or federal systems before choosing where to try them.

Those arrested on federal charges face mandatory minimum sentences, depending on their criminal history, of life in prison, 20 years, 10 years and five years, officials noted.

Federal prisoners don’t receive parole and typically serve 85 percent of their sentences; they can be sent to federal prisons anywhere in the United States, authorities added.

“As you read through the potential sentencing for these individuals, we are going to see some surprised faces on some individuals as they look at what they’re facing with criminal prosecution,” said Hedges, the SLO County sheriff. “While we’re not going to announce where the Safe Streets Task Force may be working next, this should be a notice to anyone involved in gang activity that they could be looking at the same types of federal prosecution in the future.”