13 Arrested in Anti-Gang Raids Into 30 Homes : Oxnard: Officers seize weapons, graffiti tools and drug paraphernalia in two morning sweeps.

Law enforcement officers swarmed into 30 Oxnard gang members’ homes and arrested nine people in a pre-dawn raid Thursday and four more later that morning, just days after an angry young mob marched across Oxnard and clashed with police.

Police said they had spotted several of the youths in the rowdy crowd that roved from La Colonia to South Oxnard on Saturday night before the teen-agers were dispersed in a bottle-throwing standoff with officers.

That night violated the young men’s probation, which forbids them to hang around with other gang members, said county Deputy Probation Officer Keith Jan.

“I think for them it’s a game,” Jan said of the alleged violations. “They know what they’re not supposed to do, and they go ahead and do it.”

Others were arrested for failing to live at the address they had given to authorities, or for possessing contraband, both of which violate probation rules, police said.

The officers arrested seven men and two minor boys in the raid and two adults and two youths later in the day. They also seized weapons, graffiti tools and drug paraphernalia in the suspects’ homes.

With that number of arrests and few problems, said Oxnard Police Sgt. Chuck Hookstra, the multi-agency raid was “sweet.”

“Things went very well,” said Hookstra, who oversees his department’s anti-gang unit. “We’ve had people calling us that weren’t home” to explain their whereabouts. Those gang members and others who were not home at the time will be rounded up by week’s end, he said.

Probation laws empower police to search gang members’ homes without warrants or warning, to uncover any evidence that they are still clinging to gang ties.

This was the 12th such raid held since a countywide anti-gang task force began using them in 1992, Hookstra said.

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The operation began with a 5 a.m. briefing for about 50 officers and investigators from police departments in Oxnard, Port Hueneme, Ventura and Ventura County, as well as the county probation department and district attorney’s office.

Then, patrol cruisers and unmarked cars fanned out across the city, and officers began pounding on doors, in some cases rousing slumbering suspects.

On Roosevelt Avenue in the heart of La Colonia, Alphonso Diaz, 21, sat in handcuffs, listening to Oxnard Police Officer John Gomez remind him of the terms of his probation.

According to the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention act, Gomez told him, Diaz was not to associate with the local gang.

“This subjects you for imprisonment in state prison for up to three years, whether you’re a member of the . . . street gang or not,” Gomez said.

“I’m not!” Diaz protested.

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But in the end Diaz was led, coughing sullenly in the dawn chill, to a patrol car. Like most of the other adults arrested, he would be booked at the Oxnard police station and held in Ventura County Jail.

Officers streamed into a second-floor apartment and arrested a juvenile. Detectives found shotgun shells while searching the boy’s home, they said.

He, too, would be fingerprinted, photographed and booked at the Oxnard station, then held at Ventura County Juvenile Hall until his court appearance, said Oxnard Detective Steve Vendt.

However, gang member Richard Ledesma, 21, was cited for violating probation and released on a promise to appear in court, said Jan, his probation officer.

“He has a job,” Jan said. “We didn’t want him to lose his job.”

Officers found gang-related documents and photographs of Ledesma with fellow gang members, both forbidden under his probation, Jan said.

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Ironically, the man had not ditched all the contraband he owned since police conducted a routine search of his house last week and warned him about the photograph.

“I said, hide it, give it to someone else, dig a hole and bury it in your back yard until your probation’s up, and then you can have it again,” Jan said.

Although police said they saw Ledesma at Saturday night’s incident, he denied it, Jan said.

Despite repeated police harassment and the prospect of time behind bars, some gang members refuse to give up the life, Jan said.

“Every once in a while, you’ll get one who’s tired of going to jail and wants to grow up,” Jan said. “But really, not until they’re in their 20s, and the threat of going to prison is right around the corner.”

Police at other houses seized a baseball bat, knives, and belts inscribed with gang names. They also seized a hypodermic syringe, homemade bongs and pages of gang slogans carefully hand-lettered in a Gothic typeface.

Parents of gang members on probation should look out for gang-related material in their children’s rooms or face having the youngsters arrested and their homes raided, said Senior Probation Officer Jim Michalopoulos.

“Get snoopy,” he warned. “If you don’t get snoopy, that’s what’s going to happen.”

In addition to Ledesma and Diaz, police said they arrested Arturo Garcia, 18, Edward Villacana, 19, Miguel Topaya, 19, Francisco Sanchez, 18, and Gabriel Lucero, 22. All were charged with violation of probation. Two youths, ages 16 and 17, were also detained.

Arrested later that morning were Bobby Ferrer, 18, for two misdemeanor warrants, and Eric Gutierrez, 22 and two 17-year-olds, all for probation violations.