FILLMORE : 9 Arrested in Raids on Gang Members

A four-agency task force raided 10 Fillmore homes early Tuesday in what law enforcement officials called a sweep of known gang members to stave off further violence between rival gangs.

Six adults and three juveniles were arrested on various weapons and drug charges by more than 60 officers from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, Probation Department, district attorney’s office and the FBI.

“This has been an integrated effort for some time by local law enforcement,” said Lt. Richard Diaz of the Sheriff’s Department. “We’ve had a number of situations that led up to this and we wanted to intervene to curb possible gang violence.”

Authorities confiscated seven weapons--including rifles and handguns--in the raid, which began at 6:45 a.m. Those targeted in the raids are on probation, so no search warrants were required, authorities said.

“We feel it was very successful because it went off flawlessly,” Diaz said.

“We had all 10 residences secured within 10 minutes.”

The suspects were arrested on charges of possession of narcotics, possession of narcotics for sale, possession of stolen property and illegal weapons, and numerous traffic warrants, Diaz said.

He said no large quantities of drugs were seized in the raid. The adults arrested were identified as Isaac Trinidad Hernandez, 18; Juan Carlos Gallardo, 18; Jaime Arias, 18; Serafin Negrette Garibay, 18; Arturo Cortes, 18, and Jesse Villa, 22.

The names of the juveniles were not released. All are residents of Fillmore, Diaz said.