3 Gang Members Held in Rape of Girl, 12

Three gang members have been arrested on suspicion of kidnaping a 12-year-old girl outside a Sherman Oaks junior high school and raping her, authorities said Thursday.

Jose (Diablito) Puebla, 19; Luis (Lonely) Guzman, 20, and Mauricio (Baby Face) Aguilar, 22, all of Van Nuys, were in custody in connection with the Nov. 22 incident, Deputy Dist. Atty. Shellie Samuels said.

Puebla has been charged with kidnaping for purposes of child molestation, child molestation, and raping a victim he had drugged, Samuels said. He was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, she said.

The other two men will be arraigned Monday in Van Nuys Municipal Court. Guzman will be charged with rape and child molestation, she said, and Aguilar will be charged with one felony count of threatening witnesses after the incident occurred.

All three men are members of a gang made up of Salvadoran immigrants, Samuels said.

The incident occurred about noon Nov. 22 when about eight men in a pickup truck beckoned the girl. “She is a pretty, 12-year-old girl who was naive about the danger of going over to them,” Samuels said.

The men forced her into the truck and took her to an apartment in North Hollywood, she said. She was forced to drink a drugged beverage and was raped repeatedly during a three-hour period, Samuels said.

The men then drove the girl back to school, where she reported the incident to police. Police in the anti-gang unit were able to arrest the men based on descriptions from the girl and from witnesses to the abduction, Samuels said. Puebla was arrested after he returned to the junior high Monday, she said.

Guzman and Aguilar were arrested during a search of the apartment where the girl was raped, she said.