Federal Gang Sweep Ends in More Arrests : Crime: The nationwide crackdown nets 174 fugitives. O.C. officials say officers will continue to serve warrants.

In the aftermath of a nationwide federal crackdown on street gangs, law enforcement authorities sought to keep up the pressure on Crips and Blood factions, arresting more fugitives in 11 states and launching several anti-gang sweeps in Southern California communities, officials said Saturday.

A spokesman for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms said at least 174 suspected gang members were in custody by Saturday morning. Another 30 to 50 fugitives were still being pursued as part of the bureau’s “Operation Streetsweep.”

In Washington, ATF spokesman Jack Killorin said Saturday that the bureau’s two-day series of raids would be winding down, supplanted by local anti-gang programs “to sustain the pressure.”

Killorin did not know how many people had been arrested in Orange County as of Saturday. He said agents will continue to serve warrants on suspected gang members who eluded the initial sweep this weekend.

Even when “Operation Streetsweep” is completed, Killorin said, “I think it’s fair to say we’ll be back in Orange County in the future” on other enforcement sweeps.

On Friday, Santa Ana police reported that six suspected gang members were arrested in connection with the sweeps. There were no reported arrests in Santa Ana or other Orange County cities on Saturday as part of the anti-gang operation.

Search operations by the ATF for suspects named in federal arrest warrants will continue at least until the end of the week, Killorin said. The arrest warrants were issued on an assortment of weapons and narcotics possession charges.

Gang members who continue to elude federal agents will be sought “on a case by case basis,” he said.

“By the time this is all over, we expect to have either put a substantial number of people in the penitentiary or get them to cooperate and tell us a great deal more about gang activity,” Killorin said.

Meanwhile, in an action that the ATF official said grew out of inter-agency coordination, Los Angeles police conducted a miniature version of its “Operation Hammer” anti-gang sweep in North Hollywood late Friday and early Saturday. At least 27 people were arrested, including 18 suspected members of Latino gangs, on a variety of mostly misdemeanor charges.

About 65 police officers took part in the “Hammer” sweep, aimed at finding a handgun and other evidence in the May 12 murder of a North Hollywood man. Nine suspects have been arrested in connection with the slaying of Ricardo Camacho, 18, who was beaten and shot to death by gang members in the 11100 block of Victory Boulevard, a police official said.

Another 32 suspects were in custody in San Bernardino after 100 officers from that city’s police department conducted a raid early Friday in conjunction with Operation Streetsweep, Officer Eileen Prieto said.

Law enforcement authorities Saturday reported conflicting views on the impact of the federal raids. Some saw no immediate changes.

“We’ve got business as usual here, my man--shootings, hassling, you name it,” said an officer working desk duty at the Los Angeles Police Department’s gang-plagued 77th Street Division.

In Long Beach, the killing continued as one man was shot to death Saturday and his cousin was critically wounded in a fight with gang members. Gerardo Cruz, 25, of Wilmington, was pronounced dead after he was shot in a 4:30 a.m. confrontation with gang members at 5th Street and Daisy Avenue, police said.

Other authorities, including ATF officials, said there were indications that three days of gang arrests might help keep a lid on the usual wave of weekend mayhem--at least temporarily. “It tends to be quieter out there when there’s lots of law enforcement people around,” Killorin said.

But he acknowledged that the ATF and local police would have to return. “Even as large-scale as this operation was, we only took out a small segment of a pool of some 30,000 Crips and Bloods in the Los Angeles area alone,” Killorin said. “This is just the beginning.”

Starting Thursday morning, a force of more than 150 federal agents swept into crime-plagued communities across the nation to carry out the arrests.

The federal bureau’s Southern California agents were reinforced by 20 ATF agents from Washington who were flown--with their unmarked cars--on an Air Force C-5A transport from a base at Dover, Del. to the El Toro Marine Corps air station, Killorin said.

At least 135 suspects were detained in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego counties. Arrests also were made in several Northern California cities and in Louisiana, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon and Washington--and two other states that were not identified by authorities because warrants were still being served.