23 Arrests Made in Series of Drug Task Force Raids

A law enforcement task force raided homes and businesses in the Antelope and San Fernando valleys Tuesday, arresting 23 suspects in an alleged methamphetamine ring that has links to white supremacy groups and Mexican drug suppliers, authorities said.

The task force of federal and state agents, police officers and sheriff’s deputies seized narcotics, weapons, explosives and cash in the predawn raids, authorities said.

The sweeps culminated the 18-month “Operation Silent Thunder,” which targeted Antelope Valley-based methamphetamine makers and traffickers, sheriff’s officials said.

The arrests brought the total for the operation to 293. The investigation also has netted $500,000 in cash and more than 45 pounds of methamphetamine with an estimated street value of $2 million, officials said.

During Tuesday’s raids, 125 weapons were confiscated, bringing the total to nearly 300. They include a grenade launcher, an AK-47 assault rifle, semiautomatic rifles with bayonets, and explosives, authorities said. Also seized were cars and motorcycles, motorized water skis, knives with Nazi swastika insignias and other Nazi paraphernalia, officials said.

At an afternoon news conference at the Lancaster sheriff’s station, Sheriff Lee Baca showed off the cache of weapons, saying the raids had dismantled the methamphetamine enterprise that allegedly distributed the drug throughout the Western United States.

The task force included more than 200 officers and agents from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the state Department of Corrections, the Los Angeles County sheriff’s and probation departments, and the Los Angeles Police Department.

The 4 a.m. raids took place at 21 sites in Lancaster, Palmdale, Lake Los Angeles, Leona Valley and Chatsworth. The suspects were paraded through the booking center at Lancaster station Tuesday morning.

“The high desert should not be a place where known criminals can come and think they can prosper,” Baca said.

Officials said the purity of the seized methamphetamine ranged from 83% to 97%, which is highly addictive. The operation also shut down 16 meth labs, sheriff’s officials said.

Many of the suspects are members or associates of the Vagos and Hells Angels motorcycle gangs and call themselves the Untouchables, authorities said.

“They are career criminals, including many associated with organizations practicing white supremacist ideologies,” said Deputy Margarita Velazquez, a Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

Of the 293 suspects arrested during the entire investigation, authorities said, 233 have criminal records. Nearly 200 are on parole or probation, including one man on probation for attempted murder, and 72 are members of white supremacist groups, Baca said.

The suspected drug makers and dealers were creative in trying to hide the drugs, authorities said. Some packed the methamphetamine at the bottom of a carton filled with ice cream, in the steering wheel column of a car, and inside car stereos, said sheriff’s detectives.

The detectives said the suspects also went to great lengths to elude surveillance, sometimes driving into cul-de-sacs to see if they were being followed, using code language and setting up elaborate video equipment to warn of intruders.

The authorities released the names and ages of 17 of the 23 suspects.

Arrested on federal warrants were alleged kingpin Dale Roy Combs, 52, of Lancaster and Robert Williams, 39, of Palmdale. Also arrested on federal charges were Tommy Lynn Greene, 36, and Sandra McGuire, 42, both of Lancaster; Palmdale residents Richard David Smith, 45, and Richard Pearson, 51; Richard Clifford Dodd, 44, and Wayne Eddlemon, 42, both of whom were described only as Antelope Valley residents.

Those arrested on state warrants included Robert Fulbright, 64, Paul Vaughn, 39, and Frank Arana, 27, all of Palmdale; Lancaster residents Paul Francis Barnes, 52, Ryan Schmidt, 25, Kristen Combs Schmidt, 30, and Irene Alcantar, 35; Thomas Spoonemoore, 34, of Chatsworth; and James Pettingill, 42, of Lake Los Angeles.

Authorities said they are seeking more suspects.