City seals off house it says is base for gang

Opening a new front in the war on street gangs, Los Angeles prosecutors Thursday boarded up and announced plans to seize ownership of a fortress-like house in Glassell Park that allegedly provided a base for a gang that terrorized the neighborhood.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo alleged that the house on Drew Street was once home to a “shot-caller” of the Avenues street gang, a place where drugs were sold and murder plans hatched.

As a city work crew prepared to board up the property, Delgadillo said residents would soon see other gang headquarters similarly targeted to reduce gang crime, which increased 14% citywide last year.

“This is the first property to be shuttered as part of our new effort to use every tool at our disposal to drive gangs from our neighborhoods and hopefully our city,” Delgadillo said, announcing Project TOUGH, which stands for Taking Out Urban Gang Headquarters.

As the LAPD focuses heavily on crimes committed by the 10 worst gangs, Delgadillo said his office would go after the gangs’ bases of operation.

Delgadillo said gang members had equipped the house being closed Thursday with surveillance cameras, steel bars, a giant satellite dish and a laser trip-wire system. He said it had operated like a fast-food restaurant for drugs and served as a hub of gang activity.

“It’s the mother ship,” Delgadillo said of the house.

Police Chief William J. Bratton, who also attended the boarding-up event, noted that in one recent three-year period, four people were arrested at the property for homicide and 13 on narcotics-related charges, while drugs seized on the property included cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine.

Authorities also seized a Tech 9 submachine gun, a rifle and a bag of explosives in raids over the years, Bratton said.

The Avenues operate under the umbrella of the Mexican Mafia, which allegedly has received proceeds from drug sales in the neighborhood.

The house was like many others in the city’s neighborhoods, except for what went on inside, the chief said.

“It’s just indicative of how hard it is to root out this cancer,” Bratton said. “Sure, there is so much blatant violence. But the source of violence is oftentimes something like this, a house in the middle of a neighborhood.”

For years, the home and nearby corner were a hangout for gang members, who harassed and intimidated residents of the neighborhood.

However, two young men who were watching from a nearby driveway and said they were Avenues gang members scoffed at the notion that closing one house would eradicate the gang.

“That’s BS,” said one of the men, who refused to give their names. “We live in this neighborhood. Our families live here. Many of us own property here.”

City officials began a legal process to shutter the house last year. After filing a narcotics abatement lawsuit, officials obtained an injunction against the property’s two owners and a tenant, who was evicted.

The owners, Delgadillo alleged, were “straw buyers” fronting for the gang.

In September, a Superior Court judge ordered the owners and tenant to pay $75,000 in costs and penalties and to sell the property within four months.

On Thursday, Delgadillo said the penalties had not been paid and the property had not been sold, so the city barricaded and fenced the property and filed a lien for the costs and a penalty.

That lien will be used to initiate foreclosure proceedings in the near future, said Jonathan Cristall, an assistant supervising deputy city attorney.

The process for taking ownership is long and cumbersome, and those proceedings could be stopped if the owners sell the property to someone not affiliated with the gang in the meantime, Cristall said.

During the news conference, Delgadillo acknowledged that the gang still has a major presence in the neighborhood. In fact, to make sure the event was secure, the police closed off a block of Drew Street with yellow crime tape and more than a dozen officers stood guard at the entrances.

City Council President Eric Garcetti, who represents the area, said shutting down the house was the first step to taking back the neighborhoods.

“To those who traffic in drugs and crime and guns, death and fear, this is the city’s promise to you: Your time is up here,” Garcetti said.

*

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com