14 Arrested in Gang-Suppression Operation Focusing on La Mesa Area

Fourteen people with gang connections were arrested in La Mesa and adjoining unincorporated areas over the weekend as part of an ongoing operation called Partners in Gang Suppression, authorities said Monday.

Sgt. Vince Brown of the La Mesa Police Department said 32 officers from local agencies, including El Cajon, did house checks here Saturday night as the first part of the targeted effort—with police looking for probation violations by gang members.  

A second phase involved pulling motorists over for violations and looking for probationers with gang ties.

“We don’t have any established gangs in La Mesa,” Brown said. “We have people who live in La Mesa who are gang members.”

As a condition of probation, gang members in other cities sometimes are ordered not to associate with their gangs, so they move outside their neighborhoods—sometimes to La Mesa, said Brown, who headed La Mesa’s six-officer team in the operation that ended at 2 a.m. Sunday.

How is someone determined to be a gang member?

Brown said some offenders readily admit their gang affiliations. Others are documented as gang members by their “hanging out” with known criminal gang members. Or they dress in gang colors or commit crimes benefiting a known gang.

Brown didn’t have a breakdown of the specific charges against the 14 arrested people, but said they ranged from probation violations to possession of illegal narcotics.

Contrary to another report, the operation didn't involve a “warrant sweep”—although at least one person arrested was subject to an outstanding warrant.

“We didn’t go out with a list of warrants,” Brown said.  Earlier, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department denied that the operation was a warrant sweep.

Brown called the La Mesa part of the grant-funded operation successful, and said more details would be released later this summer on the yearlong effort with neighboring agencies, including the county Probation Department and the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department substations in Santee and Lemon Grove.