Drug trafficking No.1 issue for gang task force

By: WILLIAM FINN BENNETT - Staff Writer
February 11, 2007

NORTH COUNTY ---- Drug trafficking by street gangs continues to be the No.1 issue facing the North County Regional Gang Task Force as it fights to limit the activities of gangs, a spokesman for the agency said last week.

"Drugs are where the money is ---- that is what they are involved in and that is what we are focused on," said the task force's Lt. Derek Clark.

The unit, which has 24 field agents, is made up of law enforcement specialists from local, state and federal police agencies, including the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.


More than 20 documented street gangs are operating across North County, from Escondido to Encinitas, with hundreds of members. Several of those gangs are involved in drug sales of everything from methamphetamine, marijuana and cocaine, to ecstasy and steroids, according to task force officials.

While gang violence has dropped in recent years, the recent slaying of an Oceanside police officer, allegedly by a gang member, has drawn public attention back to the problem of street gangs.

Oceanside now has four injunctions in place, covering three Latino gangs.

The injunctions prohibit gang members from participating in certain activities within certain parts of a city. Typically, those activities include such things as hanging out with known gang members, possessing guns, fighting, graffiti, making gang hand signals and wearing certain types of clothing.

Meth plays key role

Over the last 10 or 15 years, gangs have gotten more and more involved in all aspects of drug trafficking, Clark said, from smuggling the drugs into the country from Mexico and distribution to street dealers, to sales at the street level, he said.

"It's a complete criminal enterprise," Clark said.

Most of the drug smuggling incidents and drug sales involve methamphetamine, he said. In 2006, for example, task force agents seized more than 28 pounds of the drug in gang-related investigations.

Clark said that in decades past, most of the methamphetamine sold in this area was produced locally. But after law enforcement began busting more meth laboratories in Southern California, criminal enterprises responded by shifting production to Mexico, Clark said.

At that point, street gangs began smuggling the drugs from across the border, he said.

In some cases, illegal immigrants who make up part of the membership of some gangs are making the connections needed across the border, Clark said. In other cases gang members who are U.S. citizens make the contacts in Mexico, he added.

"There is definitely a gang connection south of the border," he said. "The street gangs are actively involved in narcotics transportation and have direct contact with the cartels."

Serge Duarte, Immigration and Customs Enforcement's deputy special agent in charge in the San Diego area, said Friday that his agency has two full-time agents and two part-time agents working with the gang task force in North County.

Duarte said that one particularly dramatic gang-related drug case occurred in 2005, when 250 local, state and federal agents raided homes across North County. Of the 33 defendants, 10 suspects were identified as Encinitas street gang members.

The operation allegedly smuggled marijuana, methamphetamine and cocaine across the U.S. border with Mexico, then shipped the illegal drugs across the nation. Federal hearings are scheduled in at least one of those cases in April.

Gangs plague local cities

Based on figures provided to the North County Times by police departments, the task force and Sheriff's Department, North County has 21 gangs and more than 1,500 documented gang members active in Oceanside, Escondido, San Marcos, Carlsbad, Vista, Encinitas and Solana Beach.

Most gangs fall along ethnic lines, and authorities say that Latino gangs are predominant in North County.

The gangs in North County, according to these authorities, are:

- In Oceanside ---- 12 documented street gangs with roughly 621 members. Five of the gangs are black, three are Latino, one is Samoan, another predominantly Samoan, one is white and another is white and Latino. Some of those gangs also are active in Vista.

- In Escondido ---- three documented street gangs, all predominantly Latino, with just over 300 members.

- In San Marcos ---- two documented, predominantly Latino gangs with about 224 members.

- In Carlsbad ---- one documented Latino gang with about 100 members.

- In Vista ---- one Latino gang with about 270 members.

- In Encinitas ---- one documented, predominantly Latino street gang with about 20 members.

- In Solana Beach ---- one documented, predominantly Latino street gang with about 20 members.

Illegal immigrants in the mix

In addition to drug sales, another characteristic of gang life in North County appears to be the significant number of illegal immigrants who are gang members or gang associates, customs and immigration officials said.

They estimate that countywide, illegal immigrants make up about 20 percent of all gang members.

"In North County, the vast majority of gangs are Hispanic, so the percentage may be a little higher there," said Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Duarte.

In 2006, task force members arrested 510 people on suspected violations of U.S. immigration laws. About 80 percent of those arrests were gang-related, task force Detective Barry Sweeny said last week.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Lauren Mack said Friday that her agency arrested about 130 "hard core" gang members on immigration violations in North County in 2006 and has arrested another 30 since Jan. 1.

A lot of gangs have ties to the Mexican mafia, said Sheriff's Department's Sgt. Gary Floyd, who supervises the street narcotic and gang detail out of the San Marcos Station.

"And the mafia wants money coming their way from here," Floyd said.

The mafia connection usually comes through older gang members who have been in prison, where they make those contacts, he said. Once the connections are made, it can lead to drug smuggling from Mexico, he said.

They'll "cross the border, get the loads and bring them back up here," Floyd said. "It's all coming back up here through the involvement of local gang members."

He said that between June 2005 and January 2006, sheriff's deputies and task force members arrested over 120 people during gang suppression operations in San Marcos, and of those, 80 were arrested on immigration violations and had criminal records.
"A significant number were documented gang members or associates," Floyd said.

Clark said the money from drug trafficking is having an interesting effect.

"They are not fighting one another, because there is money involved," Clark said. "It's like any other business ---- if the money is there, then they will deal with one another," Clark said.

Contact staff writer William Finn Bennett at (760) 740-5426, or wbennett@nctimes.com.

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