Ali Winston
Attorney General Jerry Brown discusses Operation Street Sweeper
A few hours ago, California Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) Jerry Brown announced a multi-county gang sweep aimed at Nuestra Familia, a powerful prison-based gang that controls illegal activity in state correctional facilities and, through the Norteno street gang, communities throughout Northern California.
Operation Street Sweeper is part of an ongoing crackdown on the two intertwined groups Both Nuestra Familia and the Nortenos were the targets of two gang sweeps earlier this year, the fruits of a collaboration between local, state and federal law enforcement that began at a 2009 gang summit in Salinas.
Thirty-six gang members, including four leaders of local sets, were arrested by more than 250 federal, state, and local law enforcement agents from the Central Coast to the Central Valley, including officers from Visalia, Salinas, and Yuba City. According to Visalia Police and the Attorney General’s Office, Nuestra Familia has orchestrated a rash of violent crime in the city against rival Sureno and Asian gangs, as well as its own uncooperative soldiers: There have been 30 gang-related violent crimes this year through August, up from 30 at the same point in 2009.