11 Men and 4 Boys Are Arrested at Homes in Conejo Valley Gang Sweep : Law enforcement: The Sheriff’s Department-led operation is spurred by a drive-by shooting that wounded a pregnant Newbury Park woman.

Still without a suspect in a drive-by shooting that wounded a pregnant Newbury Park woman, the Sheriff’s Department led a 115-officer sweep through the Conejo Valley early Friday, rounding up suspected gang members on probation.

Officers from eight law enforcement agencies arrested 11 men and four boys on parole violations after searching 18 residences in Newbury Park, Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village.

All whose homes were raided had terms in their probation agreements that allow random searches without warrants, authorities said.

“We decided to make the sweep when we still didn’t have someone in custody after the first day” of investigating shots fired into a Newbury Park house late Tuesday, Sheriff Larry Carpenter said.

During Friday’s raids, authorities recovered one .22-caliber semiautomatic handgun, a fully loaded shotgun and some marijuana, Carpenter said. Some suspects also violated probation by possessing drug paraphernalia and gang writings and photographs, authorities said.

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But the weapons were not related to the drive-by shooting, and none of those arrested are thought to have been involved, the sheriff said.

“The majority of these individuals will serve additional time in jail for the violations of their probation,” Carpenter said. “But obviously they are not the main targets of the investigation. These sweeps do several things: We can obtain information about the shooting, as well as send a strong message to gang members that we have zero tolerance for this kind of activity in Ventura County.”

Local police agencies began their raids of gang members’ homes in 1992 as a way of quashing youth violence that has become much more common this decade.

Although most of the raids have occurred in the west county because the violence was focused there, an increase in east county gang crime has led to several sweeps, including one in April.

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Investigators said all the targets of this raid were members or associates of Conejo Valley gangs, but there is still no clear evidence that Tuesday’s drive-by shooting was gang-related.

“This is what gangs do though,” said Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kathryn Kemp, who oversees police activity in Thousand Oaks.

The last east county drive-by occurred in Newbury Park and involved two rival Westlake High School gangs, Kemp said. While this incident matches the pattern of other gang-related violence, she said investigators have not ruled out other motives.

After interviews with more than 60 neighbors of the wounded woman, detectives believe that youths mistakenly fired into her home, intending to hurt a gang rival, Detective Joe Braga said. The 34-year-old woman was wounded in the thigh, but not seriously injured.

Beyond a description of the assailant’s car, detectives have released no information on the shooting.

Investigators are following up tips that a dark-colored subcompact car sped away immediately after the shooting. Braga said detectives believe they know who was the intended victim, but would not identify the person.

Authorities said they hope Friday’s sweep will bring more leads.

“We hope to get a lot of real good information about who is doing what in the area,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said he also hoped that local gang members are put off guard by the raid.

“It’s the gangsters that should be the ones peeking out of their doors and ducking and dodging while they go down the street, not everybody else,” he said.