Author Topic: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang  (Read 1654 times)

Elano

  • Guest
Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« on: September 22, 2009, 11:57:59 PM »
Hundreds of police officers and federal law enforcement agents launched a major assault on the Avenues gang this morning, hoping to deal a blow to an elusive group they say is responsible for some of Los Angeles' most notorious street crime.

Under the cover of darkness around 3 a.m., roughly 1,200 heavily armed officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and several other agencies dispersed from a command post near the LAPD’s training academy in Elysian Park.

Warrants in hand, they descended on dozens of homes in search of 53 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang wanted on an array of federal charges related to extensive drug dealing, unsolved murders and other crimes.

Forty-three suspects already are in custody on unrelated charges. The operation was aimed to bring new charges against 88 Avenues members or associates, a significant share of a gang that is believed to have about 400 members.

Some suspects were sought elsewhere in the city, but the sweep focused on Glassell Park and other neighborhoods in the northeastern reaches of Los Angeles -- the center of Avenues territory since the gang first surfaced in the 1950s.

There were no reports of officers encountering armed resistance. San Bernardino sheriff's officers say they shot two aggressive dogs they encountered at one location.

It was not immediately clear how many of the suspects had been found at their homes and taken into custody. The names of the suspects and the crimes they were accused of also were not immediately known, pending the unsealing of the indictments.

The arrests culminated a yearlong investigation of the gang run by a unit of LAPD detectives that specializes in gang-related homicides and a DEA task force.

The Avenues came under scrutiny in the wake of the August 2008 slaying of Juan Abel Escalante, a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. Escalante, 27, was gunned down outside of his parents’ Cypress Park home early in the morning as he headed to work as a guard at the Men’s Central Jail.

LAPD detectives led the murder investigation into the killing because it occurred within city boundaries. Within days of the shooting, agents from the DEA task force, which had previously investigated the Avenues, came to the LAPD with information they had gathered that indicated members from the gang may have been responsible.

That tip led to the arrest in December of two Avenues members in connection with the murder. Months later, a third member was taken into custody, and charges were brought against a fourth, who remains a fugitive. In the course of investigating the Escalante killing, however, the LAPD detectives and DEA agents delved into the inner workings of the Avenues and began compiling evidence related to a host of other alleged crimes.

Some of the information was collected during interrogations of Avenues members and others from the neighborhood who had been arrested by a special team of 54 uniformed gang officers deployed in the area. Much of the incriminating information, however, came from the suspects themselves as DEA agents secured approval from federal judges for an array of wire taps that allowed them to listen in on gang members’ phone conversations.

"They could have just stuck with Escalante," said LAPD Capt. Kevin McClure, who oversees the detective unit. “They could have said, ‘We got what we came for,’ packed it up and moved on to something that would have been easier. This operation was not a result of me telling them they have to do this. It is a result of this unit saying, ‘There is more here, let’s keep going.’ ”

Over the course of the investigation, cases were built against Avenues members for their alleged roles in six other unsolved murders and four attempted murders, said a top LAPD gang detective involved in the operation. He requested that his name not be used because of concerns over retaliation by Avenues members.

The bulk of the charges are for extortion and other crimes that Avenues members and associates allegedly committed as part of the gang’s extensive drug trafficking in the area, police say. Most of the Avenues members included in the indictment are being charged under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which allows prosecutors to pursue more serious prison sentences. At a planning briefing last week with representatives from the agencies involved, there was little question as to what had kept the group motivated.

With the auditorium at LAPD headquarters filled with a few hundred officers, a recording was played of the phone call Escalante’s wife made to a 911 dispatcher after discovering him in the street. “If anyone has any doubt about the rationale or reason behind this operation, it was this,” a detective said.

At the meeting, officers reviewed the complicated logistics involved in a gang sweep of such a large magnitude. With more than a dozen targets located on one street alone, the routes each team of officers would take and the order of their deployment had to be painstakingly planned.

Officers were instructed to bring suspects back to the command post for processing wearing only clothes and a pair of shoes. Any jewelry, cellphones or other belongings would clog up what promised to be an already hectic assembly line of alleged criminals.  Staff from the state’s Child Protective Services department would be on hand to handle children found in any of the homes, officers were told.

The gang, named for the avenues that cross Figueroa Street,  has a long, ugly history dating back at least to the 1950s, when it was linked to many shootouts and killings. It is thought by some that the group’s origins can be traced back to some of the hundreds of families displaced from Chavez Ravine, now home to Dodger Stadium, and the Rose Hill areas.

The group’s insignia, which many members have tattooed on their bodies, is a skull with a bullet hole, wearing a fedora. Various cliques of the Avenues claim Highland Park and parts of Cypress Park, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock as their territory. It is linked closely to the Mexican Mafia prison gang, which demands that the Avenues and other Eastside gangs send up a share of the taxes they collect from low-level drug dealers and others selling goods on their turf.

Today’s sweep is hardly the first time law enforcement has taken on the Avenues. In 2002, the city attorney won an injunction against the gang, making it illegal for members to congregate throughout much of Highland Park, Glassell Park, Cypress Park and Eagle Rock. A few years later, federal prosecutors won hate-crime convictions against Avenues members for the killings of three black men between 1995 and 2000.

Government attorneys argued that the Avenues launched a campaign of violence to force black people out of the Highland Park area in the 1990s and targeted the men simply because of their race. In 2007, the city used a narcotics-abatement lawsuit to shut down the home of a family at the center of the Avenues' Drew Street clique.

At the time, then-City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo called the house the gang’s “mother ship.” In February of last year, the gang re-erupted into the city’s public consciousness when policy say Drew Street members  gunned down a man as he stood on a curb holding his 2-year-old granddaughter’s hand.

They brazenly took on police in a running gun battle, firing at officers with an AK-47 assault rifle in broad daylight. Most recently, in June 2008, the DEA task force that came to LAPD detectives with information on the Escalante killing conducted a similar, but smaller, operation to the one carried out today. That investigation named 70 defendants.

At the time, LAPD officials assured residents of the area that they would work to keep the gang from reclaiming control of the neighborhoods. Drug activity in the area has slowed considerably in recent months, the detective said, but considering the size of today’s operation, the gang clearly has maintained a commanding presence in the area.

"They’ve owned that community for a long, long time," the detective said. "Only time will tell for sure, but I think this will be a blow that will finally make a lasting impact."
 

Blasphemy

  • Guest
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #1 on: September 23, 2009, 09:35:51 AM »


We need batman.  8)
 

C-BLUE

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 1371
  • Karma: -359
  • evil don't die
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #2 on: September 23, 2009, 10:53:52 AM »
these damn gangbangers ought to be ashamed of themselves...thats on Crip
 

Cali Climate

  • Guest
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #3 on: September 23, 2009, 11:44:20 AM »
I believe in Harvey Dent.
 

Teddy Roosevelt

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 7538
  • Karma: 179
  • The Trust-Buster
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2009, 11:53:57 AM »
The Joker is the one that killed all the mob leaders. Fuck Dent.

Back on topic, it's good the cops in L.A. are doing something about these street gangs. But it's the FBI that needs to track down the drug smugglers and cut off the dealers' supplies. Without drugs to sell what do these street gangs have? Nothing. These street fucks don't have the brains to adapt.
 

ThaRealSupreme

Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2009, 02:30:30 PM »
There were so many cops on the streets on my way to work and back that it made me depressed. I had no idea what was goin on but at least I know for sure that I'm good to drive around 'cause none of them pulled me over. ;D 8)
I stand before God when I say that I'm not a facade_Supreme
 

LooN3y

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 4569
  • Thanked: 1 times
  • Karma: -310
  • Paid Tha Cost 2 Be Tha Boss
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2009, 02:35:52 PM »
The Joker is the one that killed all the mob leaders. Fuck Dent.

Back on topic, it's good the cops in L.A. are doing something about these street gangs. But it's the FBI that needs to track down the drug smugglers and cut off the dealers' supplies. Without drugs to sell what do these street gangs have? Nothing. These street fucks don't have the brains to adapt.


lol, no offense but thats pretty closed minded  gangs/gangsters fuck with other shit than just drugs. i mean yea drugs prob majority, but they still extort bars, pubs, clubs etc. obviously im not talkin bout no TGI fridays

usually the street fucks that dont have the brains to adapt were nerds in highschool and joined a gang at the age of 18.
818

Tha Reella - Slap A Nigga Up Like Wyatt Earp / Sig downsized, too big.
 

LooN3y

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 4569
  • Thanked: 1 times
  • Karma: -310
  • Paid Tha Cost 2 Be Tha Boss
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2009, 02:38:26 PM »
There were so many cops on the streets on my way to work and back that it made me depressed. I had no idea what was goin on but at least I know for sure that I'm good to drive around 'cause none of them pulled me over. ;D 8)

cops of your own race is the worst. because they know wassap. its funny whenver these fucks pull us over and they smell bud and cant find ne thing. i just crack up
818

Tha Reella - Slap A Nigga Up Like Wyatt Earp / Sig downsized, too big.
 

virtuoso

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 3048
  • Karma: 333
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2009, 03:06:46 PM »
The CIA floods that shit into the country in the first place, so the FBI are fighting a battle they can't win.
Remember the plane crashing in Mexico loaded with coke http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5j6QonBKKMo2gw1e3ql-xUcQEZbVg

It's not like they don't have a track record of doing this either The Contras for instance

Here is another article on this http://www.crikey.com.au/2008/09/08/a-mexican-plane-crash-the-cia-and-33-tons-of-cocaine/

« Last Edit: September 23, 2009, 03:10:04 PM by virtuoso »
 

ThaRealSupreme

Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2009, 03:08:00 PM »
There were so many cops on the streets on my way to work and back that it made me depressed. I had no idea what was goin on but at least I know for sure that I'm good to drive around 'cause none of them pulled me over. ;D 8)

cops of your own race is the worst. because they know wassap. its funny whenver these fucks pull us over and they smell bud and cant find ne thing. i just crack up

That shit ain't funny to me.....they need to keep it pushin'.
I stand before God when I say that I'm not a facade_Supreme
 

Teddy Roosevelt

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 7538
  • Karma: 179
  • The Trust-Buster
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2009, 03:36:08 PM »
The Joker is the one that killed all the mob leaders. Fuck Dent.

Back on topic, it's good the cops in L.A. are doing something about these street gangs. But it's the FBI that needs to track down the drug smugglers and cut off the dealers' supplies. Without drugs to sell what do these street gangs have? Nothing. These street fucks don't have the brains to adapt.


lol, no offense but thats pretty closed minded  gangs/gangsters fuck with other shit than just drugs. i mean yea drugs prob majority, but they still extort bars, pubs, clubs etc. obviously im not talkin bout no TGI fridays

usually the street fucks that dont have the brains to adapt were nerds in highschool and joined a gang at the age of 18.
Drugs are the easy moneymaker. With that they can recruit all the manpower they need to extort businesses. Without it, gnags shrink and they don't have the muscle to move in on territoy.
 

LooN3y

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 4569
  • Thanked: 1 times
  • Karma: -310
  • Paid Tha Cost 2 Be Tha Boss
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #11 on: September 24, 2009, 01:04:56 PM »
The Joker is the one that killed all the mob leaders. Fuck Dent.

Back on topic, it's good the cops in L.A. are doing something about these street gangs. But it's the FBI that needs to track down the drug smugglers and cut off the dealers' supplies. Without drugs to sell what do these street gangs have? Nothing. These street fucks don't have the brains to adapt.


lol, no offense but thats pretty closed minded  gangs/gangsters fuck with other shit than just drugs. i mean yea drugs prob majority, but they still extort bars, pubs, clubs etc. obviously im not talkin bout no TGI fridays

usually the street fucks that dont have the brains to adapt were nerds in highschool and joined a gang at the age of 18.
Drugs are the easy moneymaker. With that they can recruit all the manpower they need to extort businesses. Without it, gnags shrink and they don't have the muscle to move in on territoy.


extorting itself already creates manpower, its like another department. i mean yea u can slang and pick up money, but y would u do that, i rather just pick up money and take less of a risk. and its not really punkin them usually, they have something they can blackmail the clubs,bars, etc
818

Tha Reella - Slap A Nigga Up Like Wyatt Earp / Sig downsized, too big.
 

.:DaYg0sTyLz:.

Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #12 on: September 24, 2009, 04:45:59 PM »
Its true, the CIA needs to cut off the drug supply comin into this country. But cmon, be real...we all know they aint NEVER...EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER, goan do that shit.  Keeping drugs out of the country isnt as hard as they make you believe. Every once in a while they put on a lil show where they seize some coacaine off the coast or some shit. But theres no REAL interest in keepin that shit out on the governments part.  And to be real, I dont think keepin the drugs out is gonna lead to a big decrease in crime lol.  If anything, itll probably lead to an increase in violent crime. Instead of sellin drugs to get paid, muhafuckas goan be robbin yo ass lol
"...and these niggas gettin tattoo tears...industry Bloods that show fear, when the authentics are near"
 

Nutty

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 2312
  • Karma: 100
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #13 on: September 25, 2009, 04:25:38 PM »
Its true, the CIA needs to cut off the drug supply comin into this country. But cmon, be real...we all know they aint NEVER...EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER, goan do that shit.  Keeping drugs out of the country isnt as hard as they make you believe. Every once in a while they put on a lil show where they seize some coacaine off the coast or some shit. But theres no REAL interest in keepin that shit out on the governments part.  And to be real, I dont think keepin the drugs out is gonna lead to a big decrease in crime lol.  If anything, itll probably lead to an increase in violent crime. Instead of sellin drugs to get paid, muhafuckas goan be robbin yo ass lol

True. Crims are crims, we.........I mean they will always find another hustle.
« Last Edit: September 25, 2009, 04:34:22 PM by Nutty »
 

LooN3y

  • Muthafuckin' Don!
  • *****
  • Posts: 4569
  • Thanked: 1 times
  • Karma: -310
  • Paid Tha Cost 2 Be Tha Boss
Re: Major police raid targets L.A.'s notorious Avenues gang
« Reply #14 on: September 26, 2009, 05:47:42 PM »
Its true, the CIA needs to cut off the drug supply comin into this country. But cmon, be real...we all know they aint NEVER...EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER, goan do that shit.  Keeping drugs out of the country isnt as hard as they make you believe. Every once in a while they put on a lil show where they seize some coacaine off the coast or some shit. But theres no REAL interest in keepin that shit out on the governments part.  And to be real, I dont think keepin the drugs out is gonna lead to a big decrease in crime lol.  If anything, itll probably lead to an increase in violent crime. Instead of sellin drugs to get paid, muhafuckas goan be robbin yo ass lol

True. Crims are crims, we.........I mean they will always find another hustle.


even so its not reasonable to cut off all drug trade coming into the US, itll be an economic disaster, many ppl will lose jobs that has to do with the justice system (probation/parole officers, drug internship cousnselers, etc) theres so many programs that revolve around drugs.

i mean thats known, even though the probation/parole department is hugely over crowded, same with the jails and prisons
818

Tha Reella - Slap A Nigga Up Like Wyatt Earp / Sig downsized, too big.