LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles police and federal authorities launched a major crackdown on the notorious Avenues gang Tuesday, serving multiple search and arrest warrants for alleged crimes ranging from drug dealing to murder.
Some 1,300 officers and agents began going door to door around 4:00 a.m., serving about 88 federal grand jury indictments. The raids took place at 47 locations around Los Angeles and surrounding counties, according to authorities.
The warrants implicate members and associates of the Avenues gang in such felonies as narcotics and gun trafficking, carjacking, home invasion robberies, witness intimidation and murder, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Within hours, 44 of the men and women were in custody, according to LAPD Capt. Kevin McClure, who is overseeing the operation. The others remained at large and are being sought. Among the arrested was Tammy Armstrong, a state corrections officer accused of aiding members of the gang currently incarcerated. Several weapons were also confiscated.
With more than three dozen other suspects already in custody on unrelated crimes, the operation aimed to bring fresh criminal charges against 88 Avenues members or associates, a significant share of a gang that is believed to have about 400 members.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, are among the agencies participating in the raids, according to police.
This is the second massive gang operation this year, according to Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz of the LAPD's Central Bureau.
The Avenues gang is accused of violence against police officers, including the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Escalante, 27, who was shot outside of his parents' house in Cypress Park in August of 2008.
The gang, thought to have some 400 members, is mostly based in Highland Park, Cypress Park, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock. The group first surfaced in the 1950s
Some 1,300 officers and agents began going door to door around 4:00 a.m., serving about 88 federal grand jury indictments. The raids took place at 47 locations around Los Angeles and surrounding counties, according to authorities.
The warrants implicate members and associates of the Avenues gang in such felonies as narcotics and gun trafficking, carjacking, home invasion robberies, witness intimidation and murder, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Within hours, 44 of the men and women were in custody, according to LAPD Capt. Kevin McClure, who is overseeing the operation. The others remained at large and are being sought. Among the arrested was Tammy Armstrong, a state corrections officer accused of aiding members of the gang currently incarcerated. Several weapons were also confiscated.
With more than three dozen other suspects already in custody on unrelated crimes, the operation aimed to bring fresh criminal charges against 88 Avenues members or associates, a significant share of a gang that is believed to have about 400 members.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, are among the agencies participating in the raids, according to police.
This is the second massive gang operation this year, according to Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz of the LAPD's Central Bureau.
The Avenues gang is accused of violence against police officers, including the murder of Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Juan Escalante, 27, who was shot outside of his parents' house in Cypress Park in August of 2008.
The gang, thought to have some 400 members, is mostly based in Highland Park, Cypress Park, Glassell Park and Eagle Rock. The group first surfaced in the 1950s
