11 Arrested in Oxnard Gang Sweep : Law enforcement: A county task force begins a series of raids shortly before dawn. Weapons are also seized in the crackdown.

Intensifying its countywide crackdown on gangs, a task force of Ventura County police agencies swept through Oxnard early Wednesday, arresting 11 suspected gang members and seizing an assault rifle and armor-piercing bullets possibly used in a drive-by shooting earlier this month.

For the third time in less than a year, seven teams of officers fanned out across the city in a series of raids that started shortly before dawn.

Since September, similar multi-agency sweeps have been staged in Thousand Oaks, Fillmore and Ventura. The sweeps are part of a new regional push conceived last summer to zap the burgeoning strength of street gangs through cooperation.

“Because the different agencies are low on funds, it’s a good way to do things and everyone recognizes that,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim Gibbons, who prosecutes major gang cases. “Perhaps there’s a spirit of cooperation that has been enhanced, and we think that’s good for everyone.”

Some of the searches were conducted at the houses of juveniles who had agreed to them as a condition of their probation.

But police officers also searched for guns stolen last year from a downtown Oxnard pawn shop and an assault rifle and high-powered ammunition used in a drive-by shooting in south Oxnard earlier this month.

“This probably has the most potential for a violent outcome than any other gang sweep we’ve done,” said Oxnard police spokesman David Keith shortly before the mission got under way. “We know the weapons are out there.”

A force of 44 officers hit 35 houses Wednesday morning, serving 15 arrest warrants and delivering legal notices to 14 alleged gang members warning that further gang participation could lead to a three-year prison term under a state anti-terrorism law.

Also, Special Weapons and Tactics teams from the Oxnard and Ventura police departments served four search warrants aimed at recovering weapons and ammunition.

In the 1900 block of Lincoln Court a few blocks south of Oxnard College, officers armed with stun grenades served a search warrant at a pink house where three alleged members of an Oxnard gang and a mother and her two children lay sleeping.

Near a crib and a bag of diapers, an officer said police found a sawed-off shotgun, two handguns, a small amount of drugs and gang paraphernalia that included photo albums of alleged gang members attending the funeral of a fellow gang member in Los Angeles.

Police also found a trash bag filled with armor-piercing bullets capable of penetrating a bulletproof vest.

“If they hit me with one of these rounds, I’m history,” said Michael Williamson, an Oxnard gang detective.

At the Lincoln Court address, officers arrested Eddie Wardlow, 33, Vern Basila, 22, and Alesan Talili, 31, on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs.

Also arrested on a variety of charges at other sites were Edward Maruffo, 19, Peter Guzman, 19, Hilda Quiroz and five juveniles.

In a related discovery, officers serving search warrants found semiautomatic assault rifles at houses on Greely Court and Houston Place. These assault rifles were not the weapons stolen from the pawn shop, police said.

Williamson said he believes one of the rifles and the ammunition were used in a March 10 drive-by shooting in which a gunman fired 17 rounds into a house in the 100 block of Clark Court.

Although no one inside the house was hit, one of the high-powered bullets slammed through five walls in the house before finally coming to a stop in a block wall lining the back yard.

“The house looked like Swiss cheese when they were done,” Williamson said.

It was in response to escalating gang violence in Ventura County that the multi-agency task force was formed by the district attorney, the sheriff and police chiefs.

The district attorney’s office, Sheriff’s Department and the Ventura County Probation Department took part in the gang sweeps Wednesday, along with police officers from the Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ventura, Simi Valley and Santa Paula police departments.

“When you’re low on money, you do what you have to do,” said Sgt. Charles Hookstra, who spearheaded the Oxnard operation.

Oxnard has the largest gang problem of any city in the county.

As of last year, police said the city had 56 gangs with more than 1,500 members. Of those, 14 of the gangs are considered hard-core and active.

Wednesday’s gang sweep extended from Oxnard’s La Colonia district to the south side. In the 2000 block of Patricia Street--a quiet residential neighborhood in central Oxnard lined with well-manicured lawns--officers arrested a 15-year-old on suspicion of attempted grand theft.

“You guys are nosy,” the youth told jostling news crews as he was led away in handcuffs while his neighbors looked on.

Items confiscated during the raids included videotapes of suspected gang funerals, newspaper clippings on previous gang sweeps and a list of scanner frequencies for every police department in the county.

“They’re smart and they make it tough on us,” Hookstra said. “But we’re not going to stop. There will be a repeat real soon.”