Scores Jailed in Huge Santa Ana Crime Sweep

A small army of police and FBI agents swooped down on a troubled Santa Ana neighborhood Wednesday after securing indictments against more than 100 suspected drug and weapons dealers in what officials called an all-out push to clean up an area seemingly impervious to the recent drops in crime.

Police described the sweep as the biggest in Orange County history, capping a seven-month investigation in which a gang member-turned-informant infiltrated some of the region’s most notorious street gangs.

The operation highlights the fact that while crime--and especially gang violence--has plummeted across Orange County in the last decade, some pockets like the one-square-mile section of west Santa Ana remain mired in drugs, street crime and fear.

The crackdown marks what local officials called the end of the “reign of terror” waged by brazen gang members in the community situated along the Santa Ana River.

“The people in the neighborhood were in fear. If you pretty much own the neighborhood, you can do what you want,” said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul Luna.

The top-secret operation centered around one veteran gang member who gained the trust of local dealers and made hundreds of purchases of narcotics, stolen cars and high-powered firearms.

As the informant worked, law enforcement officers sat in a nearby vehicle capturing deals on the latest in video surveillance equipment, much of it donated by technology companies.

A secretly impaneled Orange County Grand Jury--only the second of its kind--spent seven weeks watching footage of the illegal purchases and listening to testimony from gang officers until the panel handed up the indictments.

Armed with arrest warrants, more than 400 officers from federal, state and local agencies launched Wednesday’s dawn raid. With snipers perched atop nearby roofs, officers smashed windows and hauled bleary-eyed members of the Santa Nita and rival gangs from their homes, some of them clad only in underwear.

The huge law enforcement presence made the effort the biggest undertaking of its type ever in Orange County. In all, police moved on 139 suspects, the vast majority--125--indicted by the grand jury. As of Wednesday night, police were still searching for more than 40 suspects after arresting about that number in the morning raid. More than 50 of those indicted were already in custody on unrelated charges.

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Officials selected the neighborhood after a review of crime records and interviews with residents indicated that the area off Harbor Boulevard and McFadden Avenue had chronic problems.

Since the beginning of the decade, Santa Ana’s crime rate has plunged 61%, with gang-related homicides dropping from a peak of 48 in 1993 to only seven last year. But while some serious crimes in the west Santa Ana neighborhood have also lessened, police and residents said gangs still ruled the streets, brazenly selling drugs and weapons with impunity.

“Just because crime is down [across the city], it doesn’t mean that there was no crime in this community,” said Lt. Bill Tegeler. “The key [in west Santa Ana] was the criminals were doing the crimes in public.”

Residents said they’ve grown accustomed to watching daylight deals involving drugs, weapons and stolen property in front of their homes.

“It’s bad around here,” said longtime resident Ambrosio Gutierrez. “We don’t walk the streets [at night]. . . . We close the doors at night because [the gangs] take over.”

In one case during the undercover operation, police watched a 14-year-old try to trade a Magnum pistol for a more powerful weapon. In another, the police informant bought 12 vehicles valued at $140,000 from a stolen car ring that officials said was busted during the probe.

Police said the surveillance tapes show sales of cocaine, heroin, meth and marijuana. Other suspects were recorded illegally selling and possessing firearms, officials said.

“Operation Orion,” which included the FBI, Santa Ana police, the Orange County district attorney’s office and state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, was modeled after the slightly smaller sweep of Santa Ana’s 6th Street gang six years ago.

Like its predecessor, Orion will include more than just arrests. City officials hope to launch city-funded programs that will revitalize the area, eradicate graffiti and provide mentoring and recreation programs for at-risk youths.

“This is not just a one-day operation,” Luna said. “This is just the first phase of pulling the weed from the garden and planting seeds in the neighborhood so that residents can reclaim the streets.”

During “Operation Roundup,” as the 1994 sweep was called, police took 117 people into custody over two days. But authorities later were forced to release four suspects whom they discovered had iron-clad alibis for days when they were supposedly surveilled making drug deals.

Authorities said Wednesday that they installed safeguards to ensure the same mistakes were not repeated.

“We learned a lot from Operation Roundup, and you learn from your mistakes,” Luna said.

The idea of a second major undercover operation was conceived as local police officials applied for and won a $1-million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to combat crime in a specific neighborhood. Another 20 cities around the nation will use Santa Ana’s operation as a model for spending their own federal grants, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who attended a press conference Wednesday announcing the bust.

“People shouldn’t be afraid to have the kids go out and play,” Luna said. “They shouldn’t be afraid to use the local park because of graffiti and gang members present. And they shouldn’t be intimidated because people are cruising the streets giving them dirty looks.”

Tegeler, the police lieutenant who headed the operation, said the investigation cost about $500,000.

Police declined to say much about the informant other than that he is a convicted felon and that he cooperated with authorities in exchange for help with his immigration problems.

The informant was paid, though authorities said they have not yet tallied up how much.

“It helped because he was a former gang member. It helped him get closer to the suspects,” said Tegeler.

Police said they had to try to arrest all suspects at once because they feared for the informant’s life.

Authorities said they were unconcerned that defense attorneys might make an issue of the informant’s criminal record and the fact that he cooperated in return for help.

“In order to infiltrate hard-core gangs, you’re not going to do it with police officers. You’re not going to do it with someone you take off the street,” Luna said.

Operation Orion differs from the types of massive gang sweeps conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department a decade ago that drew fire from civil rights activists.

Then, officers barricaded areas to stop and search suspected troublemakers in an attempt to put pressure on gang members. But critics have argued that such efforts rarely produced serious charges or prison time and some called the tactic little short of harassment.

In marked contrast, officials said that Wednesday’s massive bust followed months of painstaking surveillance work and indictments on specific charges.

“It does sound better than the sweeps that they’ve done in the past,” said UCI research professor James Meaker. “When they just go in and do a sweep for jaywalking and spitting, that doesn’t have an effect. . . . If this is subject to solid indictments and coupled with community programs, that sounds like a program that should work.”

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Police Sweep

A phalanx of 400 law enforcement officers swooped into a Santa Ana neighborhood early Wednesday morning in the culmination of a seven-month crime investigation that snared nearly 100 suspects on drug, weapons and other charges, authorities said.

By the Numbers

200 - Individual felony charges filed

125 - Arrest warrants issued

109 - Suspects in custody

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400 - Officers involved in sweep

21 - Law enforcement agencies involved

9 - SWAT teams involved

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24- Stolen vehicles purchased in operation

$4,060 - Total price paid for stolen vehicles

$140,300 - Low “Blue Book” value of stolen vehicles

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19 - Weapons recovered in operation

7 - Handguns recovered

4 - Assault rifles recovered

4 - Rifles recovered

4 - Shotguns recovered

Source: Santa Ana Police Department

Reported by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times