L.A. Youth, 18, Seized, Accused of Being City’s Most Prolific ‘Tagger’ : Graffiti: Police say Daniel Ramos has scrawled his ‘Chaka’ signature from Orange County to San Francisco to the tune of $500,000 in damage.

He’s an 18-year-old who grew up in the projects of Los Angeles. A schoolmate remembers watching him leave his house late at night and head for parts unknown, a skateboard under his arm and a knapsack of spray paint cans on his back. The neighbors say Daniel Ramos was never rowdy.

But police say freeway drivers and anyone who has traveled the streets of Los Angeles might know him better as “Chaka,” a notorious “tagger” who has left his graffiti mark on at least 10,000 places in the Los Angeles area alone, and has defaced more than $500,000 in property from Orange County to San Francisco.

Ramos was arrested the morning of Nov. 28 by Los Angeles police officers who say they caught him scrawling “Chaka” with a marking pen on a traffic light pole at San Fernando Road and Humboldt Street in Lincoln Heights.

The prosecutor who has charged him with 48 counts of vandalism and trespassing calls him the most prolific tagger ever in Los Angeles. Ramos allegedly has inscribed his tag in fat looping letters taller than his 5-foot-4-inch frame and also has scribbled smaller versions of it on lampposts, concrete curbs, brick buildings, Southern Pacific railroad cars and, it would seem, every available nook and cranny in the city.

“That idiot has managed to paint everything in Southern California that I’ve seen,” said Lt. Rob Waters, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Northeast Division, where the arrest was made. “He considers himself an artist, you know. In the L.A. area alone, this guy is good for half a million dollars in vandalism, bare minimum.”

Deputy City Atty. Peter Shutan on Wednesday added 20 more misdemeanor charges to the 28 already filed against Ramos, who has pleaded not guilty and remains in custody on $10,000 bail. He was transferred last week from the county jail to the Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk, but the prosecutor could not explain why.

Ramos’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Yvonne Velazquez, would not discuss the case.

Officials say Ramos is not affiliated with any gang, but fancies himself an artist with a mission to defy authority. The brazen Chaka artwork has infuriated police officers--turning up at least 25 times on the building across the street from the Northeast Division police station--and frustrated state Department of Transportation officials with miles of freeway graffiti. Southern Pacific Railroad police have tallied up $30,000 worth of Chaka damage in and around the Glassell Park rail yard.

“Chaka concentrated a lot of effort on vandalizing railway cars, apparently because they are mobile and carried his tag throughout the Southern Pacific network,” according to Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn, who called the extent of Chaka’s destruction “staggering.”

It isn’t likely he had time to do much else, officials said. First Street leading to Ramos’ home in Aliso Village downtown is a veritable gallery of Chaka signatures, screaming from store fronts and peeking out from obscure curb sides. His “placa,” or graffiti signature, was spotted on a water tank in Coalinga.

Ramos’ juvenile record includes at least 10 arrests for vandalism and theft, according to police. He stole paint from automobile supply stores and worked mostly at night, police said.

RTD police arrested Ramos last spring and Los Angeles police charged him with 88 counts of vandalism. Police say Ramos laughed when a judge put him on probation.

While in custody at age 16, a youth who identified himself as Chaka boasted in a videotaped interview with RTD police that he once went through seven cans of paint and tagged 75 places in a single night.

Officials say that Ramos adopted the name Chaka from an insolent character in a TV show he watched in his youth.

When police handcuffed him last month, they said Ramos proclaimed: “I am the famous Chaka!” Although he has pleaded innocent, police said Ramos has confessed to as many as 1,000 graffiti crimes since his arrest.

This arrest was Ramos’ first as an adult, and he faces 24 years in jail and a $24,000 fine if convicted. His trial is set for Dec. 20 in Los Angeles Municipal Court.

“We’re not looking to have him spend the rest of his life in county jail,” Shutan said. “We want him to have some significant jail time and we want him to clean up his mess.”

Officials from the LAPD to Caltrans to the railroads expressed delight when informed that Chaka was under arrest. But even the arrest of the city’s most notorious tagger will make hardly a dent in an epidemic of graffiti, they agreed.

“Southern California is really beginning to look like hell and all these citizen groups are jumping on us to crack down on vandalism,” Waters said. “Hell, we can’t even stop gang killing, let alone graffiti.”