VISALIA — Operation Street Sweeper on Tuesday continued a statewide effort that began in Salinas in April.
The more than 40 arrests across California on Tuesday included several of the Nuestra Familia gang's leaders and associates. Several street regiment commanders were brought in during simultaneous sweeps in Visalia, Delano and the Central Coast intended to dismantle the gang's leadership, state Department of Justice officials said.
The arrest warrants followed five months of near-constant surveillance operations and federal grand jury sessions.
Agents from the gang suppression branch of the state's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement oversaw Tuesday's operation from a command post at the Visalia airport, where more than 200 officers from 20 jurisdictions were deployed about 7 a.m. to begin serving the warrants.
Later in the day, dozens of those arrested were booked inside one of the airport's hangars before being bused to Tulare County Jail or a federal holding facility in Fresno.
Although most of the arrests came early and without problems, about 2:30 p.m., officers in Visalia spent more than two tense hours waiting to capture their top target.
Officers and agents couldn't find the man during the first two waves of morning raids. But by afternoon, lawmen quietly surrounded a house believing their target was inside.
Felipe "Casper" Ramirez, whom officers named as the Nuestra Familia commander for the area south of Fresno, was taken into Monterey County Fair custody after officers entered the residence shortly before 5 p.m., said Visalia police Sgt. Steven Phillips.
Of those taken into custody, 15 people were indicted on federal charges. Two of those were arrested in the Central Coast by Salinas police, and a third person already in federal custody was arrested Friday on new charges of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.
In Oakland, at a news conference announcing the takedown, Attorney General Jerry Brown called for legislative changes that Justice Department officials hope will better restrict communications from gang leaders in California's prisons, where orders are often issued to the streets — even from maximum security cells.
Although state legislators recently passed a law making smuggling cell phones into prison a misdemeanor, BNE assistant chief Jerry Hunter said his department would like to see that crime become a felony.
"We've had guys calling from Folsom Prison on cell phones," Hunter said. He said agents would like to see technology deployed that would create a "cone of silence" inside prisons to keep cell phones from functioning there.
"We really have an opportunity to have a huge impact on the gang problem in California," Hunter said.
Brown called for new laws limiting the amount of money that can be deposited into gang leaders' prison trust accounts and tighter restrictions on who can visit.
found a better article than the previous one i posted
The more than 40 arrests across California on Tuesday included several of the Nuestra Familia gang's leaders and associates. Several street regiment commanders were brought in during simultaneous sweeps in Visalia, Delano and the Central Coast intended to dismantle the gang's leadership, state Department of Justice officials said.
The arrest warrants followed five months of near-constant surveillance operations and federal grand jury sessions.
Agents from the gang suppression branch of the state's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement oversaw Tuesday's operation from a command post at the Visalia airport, where more than 200 officers from 20 jurisdictions were deployed about 7 a.m. to begin serving the warrants.
Later in the day, dozens of those arrested were booked inside one of the airport's hangars before being bused to Tulare County Jail or a federal holding facility in Fresno.
Although most of the arrests came early and without problems, about 2:30 p.m., officers in Visalia spent more than two tense hours waiting to capture their top target.
Officers and agents couldn't find the man during the first two waves of morning raids. But by afternoon, lawmen quietly surrounded a house believing their target was inside.
Felipe "Casper" Ramirez, whom officers named as the Nuestra Familia commander for the area south of Fresno, was taken into Monterey County Fair custody after officers entered the residence shortly before 5 p.m., said Visalia police Sgt. Steven Phillips.
Of those taken into custody, 15 people were indicted on federal charges. Two of those were arrested in the Central Coast by Salinas police, and a third person already in federal custody was arrested Friday on new charges of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.
In Oakland, at a news conference announcing the takedown, Attorney General Jerry Brown called for legislative changes that Justice Department officials hope will better restrict communications from gang leaders in California's prisons, where orders are often issued to the streets — even from maximum security cells.
Although state legislators recently passed a law making smuggling cell phones into prison a misdemeanor, BNE assistant chief Jerry Hunter said his department would like to see that crime become a felony.
"We've had guys calling from Folsom Prison on cell phones," Hunter said. He said agents would like to see technology deployed that would create a "cone of silence" inside prisons to keep cell phones from functioning there.
"We really have an opportunity to have a huge impact on the gang problem in California," Hunter said.
Brown called for new laws limiting the amount of money that can be deposited into gang leaders' prison trust accounts and tighter restrictions on who can visit.
found a better article than the previous one i posted
