31 Held in Oxnard Gang Sweep

Targeting gang crime, Oxnard police led a multi-agency task force early Thursday on a citywide sweep, serving numerous search warrants, arresting more than two dozen people and confiscating several weapons and small amounts of drugs.

Twenty-eight males and three females were arrested, including 10 juveniles, police said. A shotgun, three pistols, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and homemade clubs were confiscated along with 2 ounces of marijuana and less than a gram of heroin.

“We definitely made a statement today that gang violence will absolutely not be tolerated in Oxnard or in Ventura County,” said Oxnard Police Cmdr. Robert Cox, who led the operation. “The show of support today from the local law enforcement community has been overwhelming.”

It was the second law enforcement sweep in the city this year and involved 140 officers from seven other agencies, including the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department, the Port Hueneme Police Department and agents from the U.S. Marshal’s Office and the U.S. Department of Justice.

David Keith, spokesman for the Oxnard Police Department, said Thursday’s sweep was prompted in part by the July 30 fatal shooting of Gloria Guerra, 22. No arrests have been made in the slaying of Guerra, who had no criminal history or gang ties, authorities said.

Cox said the sweep could lead to evidence in other cases.

“When we’re collecting these weapons, this ammunition, paraphernalia and gang writings, we’re not only collecting intelligence but we could be collecting evidence of former crimes,” he said.

Those arrested Thursday were taken to the city’s police station for fingerprinting, background checks, processing and questioning. Adult suspects were then sent to the county’s central jail in Ventura, while the minors went to the county’s juvenile justice complex in El Rio.

But not every search resulted in an arrest.

At the first home called on early Thursday, police came up empty-handed.

Eight uniformed officers, several with guns drawn, approached the porch of the residence in the 400 block of Magnolia Avenue, then gathered near the wooden front doors as one of the officers knocked and shouted to the occupants inside.

Within moments, the door opened and the officers entered. About half a dozen people were escorted from the single-story home in the working-class neighborhood near downtown, about five blocks from the police station.

Although a search turned up no drugs or other probation violations, the officers didn’t apologize, said resident Dalia Quintero, 21, the sister of two teens on probation.

“You can’t judge the whole family,” said Quintero, an Oxnard College student. “I graduated two years ago with honors. I’m being treated like a criminal, and I’m not even on probation.”

A home searched by the team in the 500 block of West Yucca Street netted one arrest: an 18-year-old who had returned to his mother’s home to be a pallbearer at a funeral.

John Ruiz’s cousin and four childhood friends died Aug. 5 in a single-vehicle accident south of Camarillo.

Ruiz, who had recently moved from Oxnard to Moreno Valley to look for work, was accused of failing to keep in contact with his probation officer.

He had previously been arrested for tagging and curfew violations, said his mother, Ana Martinez.

Meanwhile, police said they are hoping to keep up the pressure on the city’s gang members, who they say number more than 1,000.

Members of Colonia Chiques, the county’s largest gang, have been suspects or victims in more than 40 homicides since 1992, authorities said.

To curb the gang’s activities, Oxnard police successfully sought an injunction in June 2004 to limit its members’ activities. Since then, police have served dozens of gang members with papers notifying them of the injunction, and only those people are subject to the court order.

The injunction, upheld by the courts last year, prohibits Colonia Chiques members from assembling, wearing gang colors or being outside after 10 p.m. It covers a 6.6-square-mile “safety zone” around the Colonia neighborhood and is credited with helping to reduce violent crime there.

There have been more than 100 arrests and prosecutions since the injunction was imposed, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Karen Wold.

Based on that success, Wold returned to court in July seeking a similar injunction against the Southside Chiques, a smaller but relatively more violent rival gang.

Since early 2003, the gang’s members have been identified as suspects or victims in nine Oxnard homicides and three in neighboring Port Hueneme.

Ventura County Superior Court Judge Vincent O’Neill Jr. has scheduled a Sept. 18 hearing to review the district attorney’s request.