Police Investigate ‘Vigilante’ Letters

Police have opened an investigation into a series of anonymous letters that threaten to kill suspected gang members. But without any leads, investigators are hoping that information from the community will lead them to the person or group signing letters as “The Vigilantes.”

The investigation stems from a letter received three weeks ago by a Port Hueneme man, telling him that he had “been targeted because of [his] gang affiliation and criminal activity.”

The letter said the group has “targeted 18 Latino gang members within the Port Hueneme and Oxnard area to be terminated within the next four months.”

Port Hueneme Police Lt. Fernando Estrella said the original letter probably will be checked for fingerprints and that he hoped more information would surface at a public meeting Monday on community police efforts.

“For those people who have the knowledge, silence is condoning it,” he said.

A second letter signed by “The Vigilantes” was mailed within the last two weeks to the Mexican American Bar Assn. of Ventura County, which had taken the original letter from its recipient to the police.

Expressing anger that coverage of the original letter had painted the group as racist, the second letter stated that half of “The Vigilantes” are Latino or nonwhite and that all have military training.

Port Hueneme police have alerted Oxnard police, the county sheriff and the FBI about the letters, but none of those agencies has opened its own investigation.

“They’re taken seriously,” Sheriff’s Capt. Keith Parks said. “But until we have some more information or intelligence on who this might be, we’re kind of at a point where we just can’t do much.”

Parks added that whether “The Vigilantes” are in fact an organized group is not known.

“Do we have a 15-year-old kid who decided to write this memo or do we have a serious group?” he said.