Dozens arrested in meth trafficking sweep
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9 hours ago
by Christian De La Rosa

SAN DIEGO – Forty-five people with ties to six criminal street gangs across San Diego were charged with drug and illegal weapons trafficking, authorities announced Thursday.

Following a yearlong investigation and a three-day gang sweep that concluded this morning, 40 defendants were in custody and 52 weapons were taken off the streets, said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.

IScreen Shot 2014-02-06 at 6.52.09 PMnvestigators said the suspects had a large-scale operation working out of homes in neighborhoods across the city of San Diego, including Linda Vista, City Heights, Clairemont Mesa and Oak Park, including an apartment across the street from Hoover High School.

“These are the streets where our kids are walking to school and our kids are out playing,” said Duffy.

Investigators said the suspects were followed by undercover agents for months and were busted just this week.

Agents and detectives seized 52 illegal firearms and $47,600 in cash at a house in Oak Park, bringing the total cash seized to almost $60,000.

Among the guns seized in the investigation, dubbed “Crystal Palace II,” were numerous assault rifles, a 9mm (Tec 9) with a high capacity magazine and a couple Norinco Mak 90 7.62 (AK 47s) with high capacity magazines.

“Transactions were conducted in public areas such as a parking lot at a crowded casino, a car wash and a parking lot on a Good Will store,” said Special Agent Derek Benner.

The alleged illegal trafficking operation went well beyond state borders – from California to Minnesota, to Hawaii and even Guam.

Agents said the meth came from “super labs” in Mexico, satisfying a growing demand.

“It’s cheap, it’s pure and it’s highly addictive,” stressed Duffy.

Ten indictments unsealed this week describe five different conspiracies with overlapping players, including individuals with ties to the Oriental Killer Boys, the Oriental Mob Crips, the Viet Boys, the Tiny Oriental Crips. the Logan Heights Calle Treinta and Linda Vista Crips.

According to the indictments and search warrants, some of the defendants were felons in possession of firearms.

“The results of this operation is to put gang members on notice, they are the ones that should be afraid and not members of this community,” added Benner.

This bust comes just days after new San Diego County statistics were released showing 2012 had one of the highest numbers of methamphetamine related deaths, killing 217 San Diegans.

The case is the latest in a series of federally-charged, large-scale multi-agency crackdowns on street gang activity in San Diego County neighborhoods, Duffy said. Including today’s indictments, nearly 300 people have been charged in a number of major federal gang prosecutions since January 2012, with scores of guilty pleas entered.

According to Duffy, federal prosecutions of methamphetamine drug crimes in the Southern District of California, which includes San Diego and Imperial counties, have increased more than 500 percent in the last five years.



Read more: http://fox5sandiego.com/2014/02/06/dea-a.../#ixzz2sdRccoGs

the feds in san diego ain't fucking around

yeah they are hitting gangs pretty hard down there.

It seems that every gang on the west coast is selling meth now, it seems that it always used to be the domain of white bikers and aryan gangs, but now you got everybody involved, i think its mostly to do with the switch from homemade to cartels.

this recent case involved the bloods, then i remember one a while back with links to the rolling 60s crips who were shipping meth to buffalo ny.

Indictment leads to arrests of alleged gang members in San Bernardino
By Greg Cappis, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
POSTED: 01/24/14, 9:17 PM PST |
SAN BERNARDINO >> A multi-agency investigation culminated this week in the arrests of more than a dozen members of a local street gang, authorities said.

Agents reportedly seized several handguns, drugs and thousands of dollars in connection with alleged drug trafficking across state lines.

In July 2012, police intercepted phone calls between a reputed local gang member, identified as Cipriano Allen, and an alleged accomplice discussing a shipment of methamphetamine and marijuana from California to Indianapolis, authorities said.

Later that month, Darrow Clay, identified as the alleged accomplice, sent a text message to Allen with the number of a Green Dot financial card code numbers to pay him for the fronted drugs, according to authorities, who charged the two and 12 others in a federal indictment.

Working off that indictment on Thursday, a state and federal task force arrested more than a dozen reputed members of the Gilbert Street Bloods, a street gang based in San Bernardino. The alleged gang members are charged in a federal indictment with interstate drug trafficking.

Arrests were made in California, Arizona and Indiana, according to Laura Eimiller, spokesman for the FBI’s Los Angeles office.

During an investigation by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency, Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms, San Bernardino County Sheriff Department and San Bernardino Police Department, the task force seized about 2.5 pounds of methamphetamine, about a pound of cocaine, 11 handguns and $12,000, according to Eimiller.

The 39-page indictment, submitted by U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. to a Grand Jury last September, outlines a two-month period of alleged drug sales between those charged from June 8 to Sept. 21, 2012.

In conversations recorded in the indictment, the defendants discuss the cost of kilograms of drugs, financial problems, payment methods and locations of transactions, authorities said.

The document paints Allen as the mid-level manager.

He obtained drugs from Erubey Fonseca and Guillermo Leon, among others, and distributed them to other gang members, who sold the drugs to consumers and lower-level dealers, according to the indictment.

Day-by-day conversations in the indictment start on June 8, 2012, when Allen allegedly sells an FBI informant about a quarter pound of meth for $3,200.

During the investigation period, detectives transcribe phone calls and text messages between reputed gang members related to their alleged drug trafficking.

Transactions allegedly occurred at gas stations, fast-food restaurants, parking lots, convenience stores and homes in Fontana, Hesperia and San Bernardino.

At times, the alleged drug dealers became frustrated with late payments, cursing each other in text messages, according to the indictment.

On Aug. 2, 2012, Leon reportedly told Allen via text messages that he needs the money Allen owes him.

“I’m just returning back from mex I need to see u,” one reportedly says. Another: “look here we need to have a sit down.”

The next day Allen and Leon met at Allen’s home in San Bernardino to perform a “narcotics transaction,” according to the indictment.

Later, on Aug. 3, Clay allegedly told Allen a second shipment of drugs did not arrive in Indiana. Clay also allegedly said he thought law enforcement was intercepting their text messages.

Allen ordered Clay and others to buy new phones, authorities said.

Nearly two and half years after the drug-dealing conversations allegedly occurred, a number of reputed Gilbert Street Bloods were taken into custody.

In an email, Eimiller said 13 of the 16 people charged in the federal indictment were arrested.

But a copy of the indictment sent by Eimiller listed only 14 defendants.

that's the first i've ever heard of black people selling meth

i hope that shit never hits chicagoland

There was a recent episode of Drugs Inc. on National Geographic that showed drug dealing in San Francisco, and it focused on meth. One segment showed African American meth dealers and users. They showed what I believed to be a Blood set running a $25,000 a week meth business. They said they used to sell crack, then black tar, now meth.

Here is a link to the episode.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEZSOY1x1_c

Meth has been in Chicago as long as the Outlaws have been in Chicago. So meth is nothing new there. It is only going to get worst.

I watched that one, i think thats in the tenderloin district. no doubt there are many different meth users from all walks of life as there are with all drugs.Also, i think that with san francisco you have quite a big meth culture anyway which sort of permeates throughout the community, its quite popular amongst the gay community in many areas which if you look at san francisco probably means its in plentiful supply. There was another documentary in chicago about meth and it was mostly focused in the boys town which is considered a gay district other than that i think the use is quite obscure in that city. I think meths customer base varies drastically from region to region.

heres the link to that documentary. Its shit quality but clear enough.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wa2tPrZzks

This is another study i posted a while back about drug abuse amongst gang members, particularly meth and crack.
http://www.gangsterbb.net/threads/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=710053

Hey Scorcese you are right about meth use being huge out here. It is strange because if you look at drug purity levels, cocaine is of a high quality in California yet aside from rich people and celebrities everyone else uses meth. 15 years ago cocaine was huge now it is getting rarer. In NYC you see little meth It seems back east meth use is confined within the gay and biker communities. However, meth is moving east and I would expect it to become more common place as the Mexican cartels expand their influence farther east and as cocaine purity levels drop. this seems to be what the DEA believes as well.

I think in new york city the decline in crack use is a lot more obvious than anywhere else because from reading about a number of busts that involve cocaine operations recently, and the numbers aint all that big so i wouldn't be surprised a lot ny organisations and gangs are selling more heroin, mollys and other pills than coke. But there are still neighbourhoods where crack can still bring in good money like this guy who was busted last year. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/nyregion/11-charged-in-lower-manhattan-drug-ring.html?_r=0

east coast its heroin midwest meth west coast both mixed. scorcese you ever seen that ice age documentary on youtube. its interesting; the addict says that so many are converting to meth after being heroin junkies for many many years because its the only thing that gives them a buzz after depleting their brain for years. interesting for sure