L.A. County Targets Racial Gang War
# A sheriff's task force working between Florence Avenue and Firestone Boulevard has made 230 arrests and seized 130 weapons.
Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies working to end a deadly racial gang war in an unincorporated neighborhood just north of Watts have made 230 felony arrests and seized 130 weapons since April, Sheriff Lee Baca announced Friday.
The law enforcement push was made possible by a 57-member task force assembled to saturate a 3 1/2 -square-mile area between Florence Avenue and Firestone Boulevard where gang shootings had left more than 40 people dead and 200 wounded during an 18-month period.
The rise in violence, authorities said, dates to the beginning of last year, when a dispute over drugs between the Eastcoast Crips, a predominantly black gang, and Florencia 13, a Latino gang, escalated.
# A sheriff's task force working between Florence Avenue and Firestone Boulevard has made 230 arrests and seized 130 weapons.
Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies working to end a deadly racial gang war in an unincorporated neighborhood just north of Watts have made 230 felony arrests and seized 130 weapons since April, Sheriff Lee Baca announced Friday.
The law enforcement push was made possible by a 57-member task force assembled to saturate a 3 1/2 -square-mile area between Florence Avenue and Firestone Boulevard where gang shootings had left more than 40 people dead and 200 wounded during an 18-month period.
The rise in violence, authorities said, dates to the beginning of last year, when a dispute over drugs between the Eastcoast Crips, a predominantly black gang, and Florencia 13, a Latino gang, escalated.
