Forty-two members of what prosecutors call a San Fernando Valley-based white supremacist gang have been arrested in connection with a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday, Oct. 2, alleging a years-long criminal operation that included drug trafficking, weapons violations and loan fraud.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, 29 people named in the indictment were arrested on Wednesday in raids involving the Los Angeles Police Department and other agencies. The 13 other defendants were already in custody, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the gang has been allied with the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia, and its members use “Nazi tattoos, graffiti and iconography to indicate their violent, white-supremacy extremist ideology.”
A total of 68 defendants are named in the 76-count indictment, which alleges offenses including conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, distribution of controlled substances, bank fraud, identity theft, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon.
The gang’s “violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the (gang members are) a destructive force.”
Law enforcement seized “large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin,” prosecutors said.
The indictment alleges criminal activities dating back to at least December 2016, saying the gang used social media — including a members-only Facebook group — to share information and target people who violated the gang’s rules.
Gang members also generated revenue through robberies, identity-theft schemes and financial fraud, including bogus applications for Paycheck Protection Program funds, which were available to assist businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The proliferation of gang-related organized crime deteriorates the core of our society,” Los Angeles Police Department interim Chief Dominic Choi said in a statement. “Taking guns out of the hands of gang members and drugs from our streets is just one more step towards reducing this deterioration.”
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