Police hold pre-dawn raids

NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Glendale Police gang detail detectives pounded on a 20-year-old convicted vandal’s front door early Wednesday morning to check his home and to see if he was complying with rules and regulations of his probation.

The detective’s 6 a.m. visit came as a surprise to Enrique Zamora Jr. and his father and brother, who were sleeping. Zamora’s father and brother slept on the living room floor, his mother left at 4 a.m. for work, and Zamora slept in the apartment’s only bedroom.

Zamora, a suspected gang member, is not allowed to have drug paraphernalia, drugs, weapons or graffiti tools while on probation. Those rules apply to most people on probation and parole, Sgt. Scott Bickle said.

Police searched under the beds, couches and drawers, while his probation officer, Arbi Boghosian, of the Los Angeles County Probation Department, talked to him.

“It’s time for you to go to school or get a job,” Boghosian said.

Zamora told Boghosian that he worked once on train tracks, but hasn’t worked since then.

The morning search was one of 10 that the Glendale Police’s gang detail and special enforcement detail conducted as part of a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s and Probation departments pre-dawn compliance raid of 167 locations throughout the county, Bickle said.

The raid targeted reputed gang members who were convicted of vandalism and were on probation or parole, he said. Glendale Police didn’t arrest anyone during the searches.

Before the searches began, Bickle briefed detectives and officers on what do if the compliance check took a turn for the worse, as in the March 21 shooting in Oakland in which Lovelle Mixon shot and killed four police officers after a routine traffic stop. Mixon was wanted for a “no bail warrant” and was gunned down during a police shootout.

“In light of the Oakland tragedy, it’s just a good reminder that these guys are on probation and parole, and you don’t know what’s in their minds this morning,” he said.

Bickle reminded the officers to use safety during the compliance checks.

One of the searches conducted was in the home of a Glendale man who was on probation for a possession of concentrated cannabis conviction.

The man wasn’t home and was traveling to Miami for spring break, but his parents allowed police to enter their home.

Inside the home, police found a bottle with marijuana and concentrated cannabis that was hidden behind the headboard of the parents’ bed, Bickle said.

Boghosian told the man during a phone conversation that he had to report to his probation officer.

“You don’t have permission to leave the county or state,” Boghosian told the man.

Boghosian gave the phone to Glendale Det. Rafael Quintero, who inquired about whom the drugs belonged to.

The man told them that the drugs were his and not his parents’, Quintero said.

“The problem is I want to believe you, but you aren’t here for me to believe you,” Quintero told the man during his phone conversation.

Police called the city’s Animal Control unit to check the health of the parents’ two dogs — who looked sickly — and asked the city’s Code Enforcement team to check the home’s rear addition to see if it was legal, Glendale Det. Sean Riley said.

Carr Drive residents Gabriella Perez and Daniel Flores were drinking their morning cups of coffee outside their home when they saw eight officers walk into a corner apartment.

“The police are always coming to that apartment building,” she said.

If it wasn’t for the apartment building, Perez said, the neighborhood would be more peaceful.

Inside, police searched convicted vandal Dario Mendoza’s apartment, where he lives with his parents, his girlfriend and three children.

Police cited Mendoza for having a California identification card that didn’t belong to him in his apartment.

Mendoza was convicted of vandalism in South Glendale, at Lomita Street and Palmer Park, he said.

Mendoza spent three months in jail for it and has been trying to improve his life since then, he said.

Since Mendoza, who claimed that he was no longer a member of the Toonerville gang, was released, he got a job at a restaurant and is making enough money to take his children out to the movies and for treats, he said.

“I am not trying to do bad,” he said. “I am trying to do good.”

 VERONICA ROCHA covers public safety and the courts. She may be reached at (818) 637-3232 or by e-mail at veronica.rocha@latimes.com.