La Mesa Police Involved in Operation Allied Shield's 372 Arrests

Nearly 400 people were jailed over the weekend during a crackdown on San Diego-area gangs involved in serious cross-border crime, authorities announced Monday.

Local, state and federal law enforcement personnel, including La Mesa Police, made the arrests Friday night and early Saturday morning during the fourth staging of a sweep designed to reduce drug smuggling, human trafficking and other illicit activities committed by transnational criminal organizations, according to the county Sheriff's Department.

During the effort, dubbed Operation Allied Shield IV, more than 1,000 officers conducted parole and probation checks and traffic stops, served search warrants to locate prolific gang offenders and seized stashes of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine. The Eastern Command Post for the busts was located in Spring Valley.

Among the felony arrests, 36 were for outstanding warrants and 44 were for parole and probation violations.

The sweep, which focused on areas in the southern and eastern reaches of the county, was funded by a $5.5 million grant from the Department of Homeland Security, according to sheriff's officials.

The program began in 2010, prompted by intelligence showing that transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican drug cartels, had enlisted the assistance of gangs in the United States to further their operations.

-City News Service