4 Arrested in Raid Targeting Gang Members

Prompted by four separate shooting incidents this month, Santa Paula police Tuesday were part of a countywide law enforcement sweep in which search warrants were served at 10 houses where members of an increasingly violent Santa Paula gang live, authorities said.

The predawn searches, involving officers from nine agencies in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, netted four arrests, including one man identified as a member of the Santa Paula gang under investigation in connection with the shootings, authorities said.

The gang, with fewer than 50 members, is about 3 years old and is one of several established gangs in the city, many of which have members who live in other cities, authorities said.

A handgun and an assault rifle that may have been used in the shootings were seized at a home in Oxnard, authorities said. But authorities said they won’t know for certain whether the firearms seized are the actual weapons used in the shootings until ballistics tests are completed.

None of those arrested was being held in connection with the shootings, but authorities said the investigation is continuing and more arrests and additional charges are possible in coming weeks.

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Authorities called the massive operation a success.

“It was well-planned, and we discovered some gang paraphernalia and weapons,” Santa Paula Police Chief Bob Gonzales said. “[The operation] unites these people and puts them together in a gang, and we believe the shootings are related to this group.”

His department organized the operation about two weeks ago after three drive-by shootings on Oct. 10, when, police said, a carload of gang members fired several dozen rounds from a rifle and handgun at two houses and a car.

The houses targeted were occupied by members of a rival Santa Paula gang, and the car was parked in front of the house of a rival gang member, Gonzales said. No one was injured.

Police said the fourth incident linked to the gang occurred Friday when a 17-year-old Santa Paula boy allegedly fired several handgun rounds into a group of rival gang members, who were standing in the 100 block of South Ojai Street in Santa Paula.

The teen and his 22-year-old friend, Jose Martinez, suspected of driving the teen to the crime scene, were both arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and conspiracy to commit murder, authorities said. No one was seriously injured in that incident.

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Both the teen and Martinez are members of the same gang believed responsible for the earlier drive-bys, Gonzales said. Two separate residences in Santa Paula, where the teen and Martinez live, were searched Tuesday, he said.

“We’re not sure what started all the shooting, but we know there has been bad blood between these two factions and we are hoping to stop it,” Gonzales said.

Officers raided eight homes in Santa Paula and one each in Oxnard and Ventura on Tuesday. Separately, parole searches were conducted at two additional homes in Santa Paula and Camarillo.

Police said they arrested gang member Octavio Perez, 24, of Oxnard. Also arrested at the Oxnard residence were Emelio Torres and Sarita Perez, both 23, and an unidentified 17-year-old girl, whom authorities say are not gang members.

All were taken into custody on suspicion of possessing the assault rifle and handgun, Gonzales said. The four were being questioned by detectives Tuesday night and had not been booked into County Jail.

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Gonzales defended the practice of using dozens of officers and also said such operations are common in Ventura County.

He said as many as five such operations--in which search warrants are served simultaneously at several homes--have been led by his department since 1994.

Most of the operations run by Santa Paula police were hunts for drugs and weapons used by local gang members, he said.

“You don’t want to send a single officer to a house where there is gang activity,” Gonzales said. “It wasn’t an army of people at each house. It was a refined operation to protect officers, people in the houses and people in the neighborhoods.”

“We can’t just do it cowboyish,” he added. “It has to be well thought out and not allow for error.”

Tuesday’s searches follow a rash of gang violence and other violent crimes in Santa Paula last year.

The FBI’s annual crime report for 1998 showed a 38% jump in violent crime in Santa Paula from the prior year, and a 7.1% jump in crime in the city overall.

After the FBI statistics were released earlier this year, authorities said the rise in violent crime in Santa Paula and Fillmore may be a sign of things to come because of a steady increase of young men in the crime-prone years of 13 to 25.

In August, the department created a Special Enforcement Detail, a crew of four officers whose main job is to deal with gang crime.

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The chief, however, concedes that gang violence is a problem in his city and that his 29-member department has had a tough time tackling it.

“For every person that quits a gang, there is someone right behind him that is ready to take his place,” Gonzales said.

The agencies that assisted Santa Paula with Tuesday’s searches were the Oxnard, Santa Barbara, Simi Valley and Ventura police departments, the Ventura and Santa Barbara county sheriff’s departments, state parole officers and Ventura County probation officers.