More than 1,300 local and federal law enforcement officers arrested 80 alleged members and associates of the Rancho San Pedro gang early Thursday April 28, 2011 as part of a two-and-a-half-year investigation.
(The RSP gang's origins date back to the 1970s. Its membership includes 600 documented members, as well as more than 400 associates).
Authorities arrested 66 people for state weapons and drug violations, and 14 people on federal indictments.
The case began as a joint investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The overnight raids included personnel from the LAPD, the ATF, the Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Secret Service, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
In all, more than 230 people are named in federal and state court documents that allege a number of crimes, including violent acts, firearms trafficking and
drug trafficking.
A federal grand jury in Los Angeles has issued 12 indictments that name a total of 26 defendants alleged to have committed crimes including distribution of methamphetamine, illegal weapon sales and
immigration offenses.
About half of the defendants named in the federal indictments face potential life sentences, and all but one face mandatory minimum sentences of at least five years in federal prison if they are convicted.
(for more information on mandatory minimum sentences click on this link http://www.federalcriminaldefenseadvocates.com/Areas_of_Practice/Sentencing_Guideline_Adjustments.aspx )
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office will prosecute about 145 defendants on state charges, including illegally possessing weapons and
selling drugs ranging from methamphetamine to heroin.. Arraignments could begin as early as Friday in Long Beach Superior Court.
According to officials: Throughout the investigation, informants and undercover law enforcement personnel bought 90 firearms and about 1.5 kilograms of cocaine, 2 kilograms of crack cocaine, 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine, 2 kilograms of heroin and 26 pounds of marijuana. This morning, authorities seized 14 additional firearms, a silencer, a small quantity of methamphetamine and cocaine, and 10 pounds of marijuana.
The Los Angeles City Attorney's office has also filed a gang injunction against the Rancho San Pedro gang that seeks to limit gang members' ability to associate with one another within a proposed Safety Zone that encompasses much of San Pedro.
The City Attorney's office has filed nuisance abatement actions against five commercial and residential locations, including a pizza parlor on Gaffey Street, all of which are associated with gang and narcotics activity. This is the first time a gang injunction and nuisance abatement lawsuits have been filed simultaneously in conjunction with the takedown of a major Southern California street gang.
These are some very serious charges. Weapons, drugs, possession, distribution, affiliation; the list goes on and on.
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