Oxnard Houses Searched in Raid to Deter Gangs : Crime: Police make 15 arrests. Evidence is sought in recent shootings and beating at a park. A gun, knife and armor-piercing bullets are seized.

As part of an ongoing effort to curb gang violence in Ventura County, police searched dozens of houses throughout Oxnard early Thursday and arrested 15 people--including three men suspected of a burglary in Thousand Oaks hours before.

Among those targeted were suspected members of three local gangs, in whose homes police seized a .22-caliber handgun, a five-inch knife in a leather sheath, armor-piercing bullets, several baseball bats and a pair of bolt cutters considered burglary tools.

Officers also confiscated photographs, newspaper clippings of previous gang sweeps and notebooks scrawled with gang graffiti.

One goal of the raids was to find evidence related to a spate of recent shootings and a serious beating last weekend in an Oxnard park.

To do that, police targeted for the first time members of a black street gang that they say has grown increasingly violent. Investigators believe the gang, which surfaced about five years ago and now has about 40 members, is responsible for 10 recent unsolved shootings and the beating at the park last weekend.

“We find guns just about every time we stop them,” said Oxnard Police Officer James Seitz during a 6 a.m. briefing before the operation. “With these guys, we can’t emphasize officer safety enough.”

Despite all of the materials seized, police said they found little evidence related to the shootings.

“It’s the luck of the draw,” said Oxnard Police Sgt. Chuck Hookstra, who spearheaded the raids. “They never know when we’re going to do this.”

Still, police said past high-profile raids have had a chilling effect on gang violence, at least for a while.

All of the youths targeted Thursday are considered hard-core gang members and have been arrested in connection with a serious gang crime, officials said. In all, Oxnard police gang files contain the names of about 2,500 suspected gang members, and more than 300 with strong ties to six Oxnard gangs.

Oxnard Police Chief Harold Hurtt said focusing on the most serious offenders sends a message discouraging youths with weaker ties to gangs.

“If you’re going to reduce crime, you’ve got to lock up your known criminals--bottom line,” he said.

*

And Probation Officer Santos Hernandez said the high-profile raids--a staple of countywide gang suppression efforts for the past two years--are needed because of the type of individuals involved and the violent nature of crimes they commit.

In April, Oxnard police conducted a similar raid on a smaller scale. With assistance from other departments, officers swept through 14 homes, arrested one person and served written warnings to other gang members that future crimes would meet with stiffer penalties.

Thursday’s raids began at 7 a.m. with 50 officers from every police agency in the county fanning out across Oxnard in squad cars and unmarked vehicles. Eight teams of police and probation officers searched 39 homes of suspected gang members, all of whom had agreed to random searches as a condition of probation.

On Astoria Place in west Oxnard, a dozen officers surrounded a cream-and-gray home on a block of older tract houses with well-kept yards. Eight suspected members of the Black Mafia Gang, the group linked to the recent shootings, were ordered to sit outside while police searched the home.

Hidden beneath a pillow in the garage, officers found four credit cards reported stolen from a car in Thousand Oaks about 1 a.m. Thursday.

*

Police arrested three suspected gang members on suspicion of burglary. Two girls from Thousand Oaks, ages 13 and 14, were also arrested at the house on suspicion of being under the influence of crack cocaine.

At various locations throughout the morning, six other people were arrested for violating their probation, one other person was arrested on a narcotics charge and two others were arrested on outstanding warrants.

Asked by a police officer how he was doing, one man replied before ducking into the squad car: “I was fine until today.”

About 90 minutes later on the south end of town, police knocked on a familiar door in the College Estates neighborhood. The house, a two-story stucco-trimmed home with peeling brown paint, has been raided by police at least twice before.

Previously, officers seized guns and ammunition. This time, however, they found nothing to arrest the suspected Filipino gang member living at the address.

Similarly, police made no arrests at the house next door where a year earlier they had confiscated a semiautomatic assault rifle.

Minutes later on Boston Way, a 58-year-old man wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “U.S.A.” watched as a half-dozen officers surrounded and then searched the house next door.

Police turned up no contraband and made no arrests, but the retired military officer said he appreciated the police attention.

Though he described the street as quiet in recent years, the man said he has watched the 25-year-old neighborhood steadily deteriorated and property values drop. He said he keeps guns inside for protection.

“I’ve got my own arsenal,” he said, ticking off the half-dozen handguns and shotguns he owns. “They all know I’ve got guns and I’ve got an alarm.”