Over 400 law enforcement officers, including members of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department-Operation Safe Streets Bureau, Antelope Valley Crime Fighting Initiative, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration’s High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force and Mobile Enforcement Team (MET), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, California State Parole, and Los Angeles County Probation Department, served 32 search warrants, plus 48 parole and probation searches at 80 locations in the Antelope Valley.
The arrests are the result of 23 indictments by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on August 4. The federal indictments named a total of 23 defendants linked to the gang, which had branched out into the Antelope Valley in recent years.
16 of 23 federal defendants were arrested this morning. 26 additional gang members and associates were also arrested on various criminal charges and parole violations. 15 were arrested for narcotics possession for sales and firearms charges, 8 for parole violations, and 3 for misdemeanor arrest warrants. Authorities continue to search for six other suspects named in the indictment.
The Multi-Agency Response Team (MART) for the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) rescued four children under the age of six who were taken into protective custody today due to the unsafe living conditions.
As a result of the extensive investigation as well as today’s search warrants, law enforcement officers have seized approximately three pounds of crack cocaine and 114 grams of powder cocaine. Ten firearms including handguns and rifles had been previously seized during the ongoing investigation, and today an additional five handguns and one assault weapon were seized. Information used to commit identity theft including credit cards and phone service information was recovered. The suspects had been using this information to facilitate their sales of narcotics.
The investigation began last year after a Pasadena area gang member shot and wounded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Giovanni Lampignano during a July 12, 2009 incident in Palmdale. Dejon Ray King, the gang member who shot Deputy Lampignano, was convicted in June in California state court of attempted murder on a peace officer. King was subsequently sentenced to 38 years to life.
The arrests of 43 gang members and associates of the Pasadena Denver Lanes street gang, which is suspected of committing crimes in communities including the Antelope Valley, were announced by Sheriff’s Department Division Chief Neal Tyler today. The suspects sought for trafficking cocaine and weapons charges were captured during a major multi-agency gang arrest operation that occurred on Tuesday morning, Aug. 10, in the Antelope Valley. “This multi-agency operation has dealt a significant blow to crime,” stated Chief Tyler.According to Altadena Det. Lt. Joe Dempsey, the Pasadena Denver Lanes is one of the gangs with a presence in Altadena.