2 More Arrested in Landlord’s Killing : Blythe Street: More than 100 FBI agents and officers stage a massive sweep at homes of members of the gang believed responsible for the shooting.

In the largest raid to date by a new FBI street-gang unit, more than 100 federal agents and Los Angeles police officers arrested five suspects in a dawn strike Tuesday against members of a Blythe Street gang suspected of killing a popular landlord.

The simultaneous raids on 15 residences capped six weeks of intensive investigation aimed at capturing those suspected of killing Donald Aragon on Oct. 31 after demanding that he give up his truck.

Aragon and his wife, Betty, were among a group of building owners who had been demanding city help in ridding Blythe Street in Panorama City of the gang members who have been its virtual masters.

Arrested Tuesday on suspicion of murder were George Quirino, 21, and a 15-year-old boy whose name was not released, police said.

They were among five Blythe Street gang members, all Panorama City residents, arrested in a series of 15 raids by a combined force of 65 police officers, 50 FBI agents and four probation officers, authorities said. Eleven other gang members were questioned and released, said Deputy Police Chief Mark A. Kroeker.

None of the suspects resisted, police said.

Jose Sierra, 18, and Benjamin Pineda, 19, were also arrested on unspecified drug charges, and a 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of felony vandalism, police said. A rifle and pistol were confiscated in the raids, all of which occurred on or near Blythe Street.

Aragon was killed as he and his brother, Emmanuel, were leaving his building after preparing one of the units for new tenants. The truck was surrounded by 10 assailants and “one stuck a gun up to his head” and told Aragon to get out, said Detective John Edwards.

The gang members began chanting “Shoot him! Shoot him!” and both Aragon, who had a pistol underneath his seat, and a gang member began shooting, Edwards said. Aragon was hit twice. His shots struck two of his assailants, killing Abel Sanchez, 19, and wounding a 17-year-old boy in the mouth.

The wounded teen-ager was arrested shortly after the shooting and is being held on suspicion of murder.

Authorities said they are seeking three other gang members on suspicion of murder, but would not release their names.

In February, the FBI assigned 60 agents to assist police in combatting Los Angeles gangs. Some of them had previously been assigned to counterintelligence activities against foreign agents, said Ronald L. Iden, the FBI agent in charge of the unit.

Iden said the three held on suspicion of murder may also face charges under a new federal law against carjacking, or that Blythe street gang members could be prosecuted under federal racketeering laws.

“We’re keeping those options open,” said Iden, who declined further comment on the possibility of federal charges.

Edwards praised the FBI and said police alone could not have carried out Tuesday’s operation.

Aragon’s widow, Betty, said Tuesday’s sweep should have taken place a year ago, when building owners began begging the police department to use undercover officers or other means to shut down the curbside drug market that operated virtually around-the-clock on Blythe Street.

The Aragons, who diligently fixed broken windows and painted over graffiti almost every day, were popular with tenants, neighbors and fellow building owners. They had offered to let police use two vacant units in their building as observation posts, but their offer was declined.

After the shooting, she said, police asked her if the offer was still good.

“Something really terrible had to happen before they would do something about it,” she said. “A life had to be taken.”

Although police said the killing was a carjacking that went sour, she believes her husband was targeted by the gang members for obstructing their lucrative drug trade. Both Aragons reported the license plate numbers of drug buyers to police, kept gang members from using vacant units to shoot drugs or have sex, and refused to allow gang members or their customers to gather in their driveway.