Officers Stage Raids in Wake of Violence : Gangs: A task force of 165 lawmen searches 20 homes in Ventura and one in Oxnard for evidence to a slaying and recent stabbings. Six people are arrested.

Sending a message to gangs, a task force of 165 officers seeking evidence about a slaying and two recent stabbings swept through west Ventura early Friday, searching 16 dwellings and arresting six people on a variety of charges, authorities said.

Police also searched two houses in Ventura’s mid-town area, two in east Ventura and one in Oxnard.

Armed with search warrants and K-9 units, authorities met no resistance, police Lt. Don Arth said. They confiscated two handguns and “gang-type paraphernalia” such as clothing and banners, he said. Evidence apparently related to one stabbing was seized, he said.

“This is the largest operation I’ve seen in 22 years as a police officer,” Arth said. “We want to send a message to gang members that we take this very, very seriously. The shooting and two stabbings are very unusual.”

Bonifaco Brachamontes, 19, and Richard Reyes, 18, both of Ventura, were arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, Arth said. Both men, who police identified as gang members, are suspected of a Jan. 29 stabbing in which the victim survived.

The raids--conducted by officers from Ventura, Oxnard, the Sheriff’s Department and the district attorney’s office--are a response to an unusual spate of violence over last week, Arth said.

In three recent attacks, 24-year-old Alfonso Sanchez of Ventura was killed and two other men were stabbed--all in the Ventura Avenue area on the city’s west end.

A fourth attack last Friday that left 17-year-old Ventura High School football player Jesse Strobel dead was not related to the early-morning searches, Arth said.

“We were looking at this kind of operation since the (Sanchez) shooting occurred,” Arth said. “Since then, it has appeared to be a necessary step in order to help get additional information in Sanchez’s murder.”

Meanwhile, a law enforcement source confirmed Friday that the Strobel investigation is also focusing on a gang member.

The source would not identify the youth or say which gang. But Strobel family members have said repeatedly that they think the killing is related to a confrontation between Jesse and gang members at Ventura High two weeks before he was stabbed in the chest.

In a related development, Ventura school and city officials announced Friday a joint meeting to battle the spread of gang activity.

The Ventura City Council will meet Monday night at City Hall with representatives of the Ventura Unified School District to discuss approaches to curbing gang violence and beefing up campus security, officials said.

Topics will include the proposed closure of the section of Poli Street that divides the Ventura High School campus to lessen the possibility of drive-by shootings and the adoption of a citywide “zero tolerance” anti-gang program that, among other things, would ban from campus clothing identified with gangs.

Officials have tentatively scheduled a town hall meeting for Wednesday to further discuss the issues, but the location has not yet been determined.

“We just can’t stick our heads in the sand,” Jesse’s father, John Strobel, said Friday. “We need people to come forward and face this head-on.”

The Friday morning raids, which were carried out simultaneously at 7 a.m., targeted exclusively the homes of gang members and suspected gang members, Arth said.

At several houses, police could be seen looking under sofas, reading documents and searching bedrooms, kitchens and garages. They gathered evidence in paper bags.

In addition to Brachamontes and Reyes, police said they arrested Hadessa Jackson, 39, of Ventura for cocaine possession and Daniel Ruiz, 18, of Ventura on an outstanding narcotics warrant.

Lorraine Mendez, 31, of Ventura was arrested for traffic warrants relating to a drunken driving incident, and Mary Macias, 33, of Ventura was arrested for traffic warrants, Arth said.

All six suspects were booked into Ventura County Jail and were still in custody Friday evening. Brachamontes’ and Reyes’ bail had been set at $30,000 and $5,000, respectively.

After the Friday sweeps, Roberta Payan, program coordinator for the city’s Youth at Risk and gang intervention programs, said the Avenue has fallen into an uneasy calm since the recent violence.

“It’s real quiet,” she said. “A lot of people are avoiding the streets.”

Times staff writer Fred Alvarez and staff photographer Alan Hagman contributed to this story.