SAN CLEMENTE : Arraignment Friday in Series of Thefts

Arraignment is scheduled Friday for an alleged gang member arrested in connection with a recent rash of commercial burglaries and auto thefts in the central and south portions of the city.

Jamie L. Castillo, 19, was arrested as he carried a typewriter from the South Coast Tank Repair Co. in the 500 block of Avenida de La Estrella, police said. Undercover officers said they saw Castillo climb a dark stairway, break a window and enter the office, according to a press release from San Clemente Police Sgt. Richard E. Downing.

In the statement, Downing said that Castillo is “known to be a member of the San Clemente Varrio Chico,” the city’s only known gang.

The arrest, made last Wednesday but not announced until Monday, came two days before 20 officers raided homes in a neighborhood believed to be the territory of Varrio Chico gang. The Friday night raid resulted in two arrests for possession of property stolen from a dentist’s office and one arrest for possession of cocaine for sale, police said.

It was not known Monday whether the suspects in the stolen property arrests were linked to Castillo, who, police said, is wanted in connection with more than 10 other commercial burglaries in San Clemente, as well as several automobile thefts.

The neighborhood raided by police includes the 100 block of West Escalones Street and the 800 block of Calle Puente. On July 6, at least two youths wielding two-by-fours attacked a woman’s car as she drove near the intersection of the two streets.

And last Christmas Eve, the city’s first and only drive-by shooting injured 4-year-old Prisca Caudillo as she played on the balcony of an apartment building in the 100 block of Avenida Pelayo, just three streets away from West Escalones. Floyd Gerald Avery, 18, of Oceanside was arrested with two other teen-agers from San Juan Capistrano in connection with the incident.