Suite 800, City Hall East
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: 213-978-8340 Fax: 213-978-2093
http://www.cityofla.org/atty/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19. 2008
Contact: City Attorney’s Office: Cindy Shin (213) 978-2702
LAPD: Lee Sands (213) 485-3586

FEDERAL AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES TARGET

VENICE-AREA GANGS

LOS ANGELES – Over the past six months, officers from the Los Angeles Police
Department (LAPD), agents from the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and
Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and prosecutors from the City Attorney’s Office
have investigated narcotics and gun trafficking by the Venice Shoreline Crips
(VSLC) and V-13 gang members in the Oakwood neighborhood of Venice.
“This joint local-federal law enforcement effort once again puts gang members
throughout the City on notice,” said City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. “We will fight
you with every tool at our disposal, at all levels of government. We will target you
as individuals, and we will target your bases of operations.”

This LAPD-lead investigation involved personnel from the Narcotics Abatement
Unit (NAU) and Pacific Area Gang Enforcement Officers. It also involved the
assistance of seven outside agencies. In all, there have been 19 arrests for sales
of narcotics and/or firearms, with 33 suspects still outstanding. The suspects are
members of VSLC or associates of the gang and have an age range of 18-30.
Over the course of the operation, undercover officers purchased several
weapons from VSLC gang members and/or their associates. Recovered
weapons include shotguns, machine pistols (Tech 9), an AR-15 rifle,
semiautomatic pistols and a Derringer.

“Today’s collaborative effort involving our partners with the ATF and the City
Attorney’s Office sends a clear message that law enforcement will not stand idly
by while gang members terrorize our neighborhoods, “ said Deputy Chief Kenny
Garner, LAPD West Bureau Commanding Officer. “These communities belong to
the people who reside in them, not those whose only intent is to cause
disruption.”

Special Agent in Charge John A. Torres of the ATF is pleased with the
enforcement operations occurring in the Oakwood area of Los Angeles. “Today’s
events reinforce that ATF will not put up with armed gang violence and the drug
trade that fuels it,” Torres said. “This is an outstanding example of the combined

Federal and Local Authorities Target Venice-Area Gangs efforts of ATF, the Los
Angeles Police Department, the United States Attorney’s Office and the City
Attorney’s Office joining forces and bringing these gang members to justice.”

City Attorney Delgadillo today filed a motion seeking closure of one of the
narcotics locations (646 Broadway Ave.) which is the subject of an injunction
signed in December 2005 prohibiting narcotics sales on the property.

Delgadillo also gave eviction notices to 13 individuals living in Oakwood pursuant
to the Violent and Crime Activated Eviction Program (VACATE – Los Angeles
Municipal Code section 47.50). Eleven of these tenants are members or
associates of the VSLC gang and one is a member of the Bounty Hunters Bloods
gang.

In addition, the City Attorney and LAPD will work closely with the City’s
Department of Recreation and Parks to address community concerns that the
Oakwood Recreation Center is being used by gang members and associates as
a base of operations for narcotics sales.

The City Attorney’s efforts today are the latest in a series of legal actions taken
against gang-controlled properties throughout the City. Through his innovative
Project TOUGH (Taking Out Urban Gang Headquarters), the City Attorney
targets the properties used by gang members to commit crime and terrorize
communities.

TOUGH, a new section of the Citywide Nuisance Abatement Program (CNAP),
addresses locations that typically have a wide range of criminal gang activity
associated with the property, ranging from quality-of-life crimes like drinking in
public, to violent crimes including shootings, assaults with deadly weapons,
robberies, and murders.

The TOUGH program focuses on property abatements through lawsuits against
property owners and gang members that seek aggressive and specificallytailored
injunctive relief. Since its inception, the TOUGH program has targeted
several gang-controlled properties including those operated by the East Side
Pain gang in the Harbor area, the Avenues gang in the Northeast area, the Black
P-Stones gang in Baldwin Village, the Front Street Crips in Pacoima, the Venice
Shoreline Crips in the Oakwood neighborhood of Venice, the Grape Street Gang
in Watts, and the Rollin 30s Crips in South Los Angeles.

As part of City Attorney Delgadillo’s anti-gang efforts, CNAP will continue to
abate nuisance properties with special attention paid to locations with a gang
connection. If gang activity is extensive at a nuisance property, the case will be
transferred for special handling to the TOUGH program.