SCORES JAILED IN HUGE SANTA ANA CRIME SWEEP

Law enforcement: Hundreds of local, state and federal officers raid
neighborhood with longtime gang problem.

A small army of police and FBI agents swooped down on a troubled Santa Ana
neighborhood Wednesday after securing indictments against more than 100
suspected drug and weapons dealers in what officials called an all-out push
to clean up an area seemingly impervious to the recent drops in crime.

Police described the sweep as the biggest in Orange County history, capping
a seven-month investigation in which a gang member-turned-informant
infiltrated some of the region's most notorious street gangs.

The operation highlights the fact that while crime--and especially gang
violence--has plummeted across Orange County in the last decade, some
pockets like the one-square-mile section of west Santa Ana remain mired in
drugs, street crime and fear.

The crackdown marks what local officials called the end of the "reign of
terror" waged by brazen gang members in the community situated along the
Santa Ana River.

"The people in the neighborhood were in fear. If you pretty much own the
neighborhood, you can do what you want," said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul
Luna.

The top-secret operation centered around one veteran gang member who gained
the trust of local dealers and made hundreds of purchases of narcotics,
stolen cars and high-powered firearms.

As the informant worked, law enforcement officers sat in a nearby vehicle
capturing deals on the latest in video surveillance equipment, much of it
donated by technology companies.

A secretly impaneled Orange County Grand Jury--only the second of its
kind--spent seven weeks watching footage of the illegal purchases and
listening to testimony from gang officers until the panel handed up the
indictments.

Armed with arrest warrants, more than 400 officers from federal, state and
local agencies launched Wednesday's dawn raid. With snipers perched atop
nearby roofs, officers smashed windows and hauled bleary-eyed members of
the Santa Nita and rival gangs from their homes, some of them clad only in
underwear.

The huge law enforcement presence made the effort the biggest undertaking
of its type ever in Orange County. In all, police moved on 139 suspects,
the vast majority--125--indicted by the grand jury. As of Wednesday night,
police were still searching for more than 40 suspects after arresting about
that number in the morning raid. More than 50 of those indicted were
already in custody on unrelated charges.

Officials selected the neighborhood after a review of crime records and
interviews with residents indicated that the area off Harbor Boulevard and
McFadden Avenue had chronic problems.

Since the beginning of the decade, Santa Ana's crime rate has plunged 61%,
with gang-related homicides dropping from a peak of 48 in 1993 to only
seven last year. But while some serious crimes in the west Santa Ana
neighborhood have also lessened, police and residents said gangs still
ruled the streets, brazenly selling drugs and weapons with impunity.

"Just because crime is down [across the city], it doesn't mean that there
was no crime in this community," said Lt. Bill Tegeler. "The key [in west
Santa Ana] was the criminals were doing the crimes in public."

Residents said they've grown accustomed to watching daylight deals
involving drugs, weapons and stolen property in front of their homes.

"It's bad around here," said longtime resident Ambrosio Gutierrez. "We
don't walk the streets [at night]. . . . We close the doors at night
because [the gangs] take over."

In one case during the undercover operation, police watched a 14-year-old
try to trade a Magnum pistol for a more powerful weapon. In another, the
police informant bought 12 vehicles valued at $140,000 from a stolen car
ring that officials said was busted during the probe.

Police said the surveillance tapes show sales of cocaine, heroin, meth and
marijuana. Other suspects were recorded illegally selling and possessing
firearms, officials said.

"Operation Orion," which included the FBI, Santa Ana police, the Orange
County district attorney's office and state Bureau of Narcotics
Enforcement, was modeled after the slightly smaller sweep of Santa Ana's
6th Street gang six years ago.

Like its predecessor, Orion will include more than just arrests. City
officials hope to launch city-funded programs that will revitalize the
area, eradicate graffiti and provide mentoring and recreation programs for
at-risk youths.

"This is not just a one-day operation," Luna said. "This is just the first
phase of pulling the weed from the garden and planting seeds in the
neighborhood so that residents can reclaim the streets."

During "Operation Roundup," as the 1994 sweep was called, police took 117
people into custody over two days. But authorities later were forced to
release four suspects whom they discovered had iron-clad alibis for days
when they were supposedly surveilled making drug deals.

Authorities said Wednesday that they installed safeguards to ensure the
same mistakes were not repeated. "We learned a lot from Operation Roundup,
and you learn from your mistakes," Luna said.

The idea of a second major undercover operation was conceived as local
police officials applied for and won a $1-million grant from the U.S.
Department of Justice to combat crime in a specific neighborhood. Another
20 cities around the nation will use Santa Ana's operation as a model for
spending their own federal grants, said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.),
who attended a press conference Wednesday announcing the bust.

"People shouldn't be afraid to have the kids go out and play," Luna said.
"They shouldn't be afraid to use the local park because of graffiti and
gang members present. And they shouldn't be intimidated because people are
cruising the streets giving them dirty looks."

Tegeler, the police lieutenant who headed the operation, said the
investigation cost about $500,000.

Police declined to say much about the informant other than that he is a
convicted felon and that he cooperated with authorities in exchange for
help with his immigration problems.

The informant was paid, though authorities said they have not yet tallied
up how much.

"It helped because he was a former gang member. It helped him get closer to
the suspects," said Tegeler.

Police said they had to try to arrest all suspects at once because they
feared for the informant's life.

Authorities said they were unconcerned that defense attorneys might make an
issue of the informant's criminal record and the fact that he cooperated in
return for help.

"In order to infiltrate hard-core gangs, you're not going to do it with
police officers. You're not going to do it with someone you take off the
street," Luna said.

Operation Orion differs from the types of massive gang sweeps conducted by
the Los Angeles Police Department a decade ago that drew fire from civil
rights activists.

Then, officers barricaded areas to stop and search suspected troublemakers
in an attempt to put pressure on gang members. But critics have argued that
such efforts rarely produced serious charges or prison time and some called
the tactic little short of harassment.

In marked contrast, officials said that Wednesday's massive bust followed
months of painstaking surveillance work and indictments on specific
charges.

"It does sound better than the sweeps that they've done in the past," said
UCI research professor James Meaker. "When they just go in and do a sweep
for jaywalking and spitting, that doesn't have an effect. . . . If this is
subject to solid indictments and coupled with community pprograms, that
sounds like a program that should work."

Police Sweep

A phalanx of 400 law enforcement officers swooped into a Santa Ana
neighborhood early Wednesday morning in the culmination of a seven-month
crime investigation that snared nearly 100 suspects on drug, weapons and
other charges, authorities said.

By the Numbers

200 - Individual felony charges filed

125 - Arrest warrants issued

109 - Suspects in custody

400 - Officers involved in sweep

21 - Law enforcement agencies involved

9 - SWAT teams involved

24- Stolen vehicles purchased in operation

$4,060 - Total price paid for stolen vehicles

$140,300 - Low "Blue Book" value of stolen vehicles

19 - Weapons recovered in operation

7 - Handguns recovered

4 - Assault rifles recovered

4 - Rifles recovered

4 - Shotguns recovered

Source: Santa Ana Police Department

Reported by Brady MacDonald / Los Angeles Times