Police Seek Leads to Killings From Other Drivers : Crime: The 35 lunch truck vendors say none of them has experienced any extortion. But they take the opportunity to complain about officers.

Los Angeles police met with lunch truck drivers Wednesday, asking if any of them knew of extortion attempts by gangs that could have been responsible for the killing of a five-person truck crew from North Hollywood.

The 35 vendors, mainly Mexican immigrants, said none of them had experienced such extortion, and took the opportunity to unload their own complaints against police.

But after voicing their grievances, they appeared encouraged by the police hunt for the killers, saying that the slayings had frightened many of them.

The meeting, conducted entirely in Spanish, was led by Capt. Richard A. Legarra, the commander of the North Hollywood Division, and Detective Mike Mejia, head of the investigation into the slayings of the five catering truck workers.

Ismael Cervantes Sr., 43; his son, Ismael Jr., 13; cook Francisco Gasca, 31, and two brothers, Heriberto and Jesus Sandoval, 19 and 16, were found shot and stabbed to death.

Their bodies were discovered by the side of the road in remote La Tuna Canyon on Dec. 10.

Their lunch truck, or lonchera , had been hijacked the day before from the 6800 block of Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, police said.

Although robbery has not been established as a motive, Mejia said he is investigating possible extortion of lonchera owners by gangs.

“We know this has happened before, but we don’t know if it happened in this case,” said Mejia, who would not reveal other details. “We know that people have tried to extort money from” loncheras before.

Vendors at the meeting knew of no cases of extortion, but several said they had heard rumors.

The vendors asked Legarra to help them not only avoid criminals but also reduce tension with patrol officers who enforce city ordinances governing the vehicles.

“We lonchera workers don’t get any respect,” Pacoima resident Jose Martinez, 43, told police. “We aren’t criminals. We are just trying to feed our families.”

Martinez and other lonchera owners complained that police often harass them for no reason, telling them to move.

“The police drive up and say ‘move it now.’ There is no explanation. No discussion. They usually don’t speak Spanish,” said Abel Manzano, 36, who parks his truck outside the Club Azteca at 5503 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood.

Many lonchera owners cited the Cervantes slayings and said they feared they would be next.

“This is something that is really scary and we don’t know how to explain this,” said Enrique Alfaro, 57, whose lonchera operates at the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Osborne Street in Pacoima. “I’ve always thought you could avoid these things with a good attitude and a smile, but now I am scared.”

Legarra and Mejia encouraged the vendors to report any crime or suspicious activity to them. Legarra introduced the owners to two Spanish-speaking officers and distributed phone numbers for them to call.

Mejia agreed with the vendors that their jobs are difficult and that many times they have bad experiences with police. But he warned them that police are the only ones who can protect them.

“It’s customary in the countries where you come from to stick your head in the sand, but it doesn’t work that way here,” Mejia said.

“You have problems--lots of problems, problems with the health department, problems with immigration, problems with restaurants,” Mejia said. “But all of these problems are nothing compared to problems with getting killed.”

The candid approach seemed to work. “I have had many problems in the past, so it’s not easy to trust them,” said Manzano, who said a police officer once told him his food was “Mexican garbage.”

“But I like Capt. Legarra. Police make me nervous, but I am even more nervous about getting killed.”