Spokane7
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June 10, 2010 in City
2-day Grant County roundup targets gangs
A two-day gang sweep in Grant County that authorities said arrested violent criminals targeted mostly illegal immigrants and felons wanted for probation violations.
Law enforcement seized Ecstasy, methamphetamine and marijuana and suspected stolen property, including guns, and arrested 32 people, 11 of whom had previously been deported but returned to the country illegally, said John Turley, Grant County undersheriff.
The multi-agency effort, which included help from a Homeland Security helicopter and a Washington State Patrol ATV with infrared detection, is the first of several planned under a federal grant awarded to the county to combat its growing gang problem.
“It’s unbelievable the way that things have gone to hell down here,” Turley said.
The task force had 144 warrants when they began the sweep Monday. They learned from other arrestees that some were already in custody out of state, but Turley said authorities already are planning a second sweep.
“They’ll never know when that’s going to happen,” Turley said.
In light of a news release from the U.S. Marshals Office, Turley clarified that none of the warrants involved homicide charges, and that gang members wanted for attempted murder in Grant County have not been arrested.
The arrests came two weeks after a 10-year-old was shot in the head in a gang-related drive-by shooting just outside Royal City. No arrests have been made in that case, but Turley said it fueled law enforcement’s resolve.
“As long as they attack each other we don’t get too excited, but when they cross the line and they interfere with young children or people who aren’t a part of the system,” Turley said, “the wrath of hell is going to come down on them.”
The sweep was organized into five groups of five law enforcement officials. Drug and major crimes detectives were brought in to take over the crime scenes after arrests to keep the sweep moving quickly. The helicopter and ATV helped tremendously in catching three suspects who fled police, Turley said.
Many of the 32 arrested belonged to rival gangs authorities believe are responsible for retaliatory shootings and assaults. The alleged leader of a large gang, Arthur Frank Cardenas, 31, was held on a Department of Corrections warrant for a probation violation. A member of a large rival gang, Jose Ruvio Lopez, 24, was arrested on weapons charges and a warrant for fourth-degree assault. Juan R. Baeza was booked after police found three-quarters of an ounce of meth on him, Turley said.
Authorities had to bring in a second van to separate rival gang members after fights broke out, Turley said.
Arrests were made in Mattawa, Royal City, Quincy, Ephrata, Soap Lake, Moses Lake and Warden as well as rural parts of Grant and Adams counties on Monday and Tuesday. More than a dozen county, city, state and federal agencies participated in the effort, known as Basin Clean Sweep 2010.
Among those arrested were Santiago Herrejon Gonzalez (immigration violation, guns charges); Alfredo Garay Alvardo (second-degree assault); Ernest Jimenez (DOC warrant); Eric Perez Garcia (DOC warrant); Homero Calderon Ruiz (possession of meth with intent to deliver) Joaquin Guzman-Gurrusquieta (immigration violation); Edgar Avelar Sanchez (possession of stolen property, gun and drug charges); Jorge Luis Cazares Sosa (immigration violation); Neil C. Montgomery (possession of meth); Christopher Jones; Nilz Contreras Cortes, 23; Fernando Ramirez Rojas, 24; Alejandro Miguel Reyna, 21; Josue Emanuel Trinidad, 23; Jonathan L. Randall, 29; Corinne Annette Brice, 50; Tanna Fayelena Roybal, 24; Stephen Glenn Low, 41; Steven Allen Curtiz, 26; Nicholas Anthony Brice, 30; Steven Mario Perez, 23; Nelia Gamboa Contreras, 21; and Roberto Baeza-Rosales, 32.
Human trafficking suspects released 
PhiltheBibliophil on June 10 at 9:38 a.m.
I am not a Racist, but its interesting to note in the article, the majority of the last names appear to be Hispanic!
spokanada on June 10 at 10:19 a.m.
True but why does it matter? There was no mention of their nationality.
Of 32 people they arrested they only mentioned 19 names.
andrewz on June 10 at 11:39 a.m.
A comment referred to above was taken down.
chelsita on June 10 at 11:48 a.m.
Why is the Spokesman publishing the names of minors? There appears to be a 17 and 15 year old listed.
Scoutster on June 10 at 12:07 p.m.
Wow. I bet that will stop all drug trafficking and use in that area now!
Orange on June 10 at 12:13 p.m.
Spokanda is right. by the way, doesn’t matter what your name is. why do people point to racism so fast?
Albert on June 10 at 12:29 p.m.
Must we focus on the negative folks? The point remains that this was a 22 month Federal investigation with 2.5 TONS of cocaine, millions of dollars of cash, and 69 TONS of marijuana seized, not to mention a trove of weapons. Names? “Nationalities”? and all other points aside, this was a major effort by the Justice Department that has taken a major hit against the cartels. That’s a buncha drugs, weapons, and dealers off the streets. Great job Justice Department!
Scoutster on June 10 at 1:49 p.m.
Albert..
The point is all of this is about prohibition. We don’t have bootleggers today because alcohol is legal and regulated. It’s the illegality that makes the drugs valuable. Sweeps like this do nothing to squelch either supply or demand.
ZagChuck on June 10 at 2:37 p.m.
@scoutster.
The false claim of legalization is always “if it were legal, it wouldn’t be a problem.” Legalizing it won’t stop the illegal traffic of it, because there are always people ready to produce/traffic/distribute black market products of every kind. This is especially true with drugs. Legalizing it just makes it harder to determine what is and is not legal, ( this will actually increase the size of govt and the amount of money we spend, despite claims of the opposite. )
legalizing It also won’t stop the crimes associated with it; users with no money will steal, rob, burglarize and assault people to get their fix. black marketers will always employee drug using thugs to protect their products.
Scoutster on June 10 at 3:22 p.m.
When was the last time you had a drive by shooting over a carton of cigarettes, or a 3 month sting over moonshine?
Given the choice, consumers will overwhelmingly (although not unanimously) choose to pay slightly more in consumption taxes to avoid breaking the law. Look around.
ZagChuck on June 10 at 3:54 p.m.
But even with “legalized” medical marijuana we’ve had recent home-invasion robberies for Marijuana and prescription drugs.
We also have plenty of folks in our neighborhoods, on our streets, under the influence of these drugs, committing the majority of our violent crime. Changing the legal status of the substance will not change their behaviors.
Legalizing drugs sends a simple message to our children. “It’s not so bad” We have an increase in Teen Smoking and an increase in teen drinking, we don’t need an increase in teen drug use as well.
Furthermore, there are already 17,000 national deaths due to DUI collisions. Adding another legal substance will increase that number too.
It’s too much of a cost to society.
SugarShane on June 10 at 7:50 p.m.
ZagChuck, your misinformation is indicative of the cost our society has already paid.
Oil, textiles, pharmaceutical corporations all stand to lose billions of dollars to medical marijuana and hemp.
These substances have been in use by mankind for over 5000 years.
Your arguments against come directly from the playbook of the ONDCP and are not based on any facts or evidence.
ZagChuck on June 10 at 8:40 p.m.
Sugar Shane…
While I disagree with you completely, and have plenty of evidence to cite, let’s hypothetically say your right and I’m wrong.
that would ammount to you saying lets take away billions of dollars in revenue and thousands of jobs, just so people could get high or stoned legally……. That doesn’t make much sense to me.
west on June 10 at 8:44 p.m.
If we Americans entered Mexico illegally and sold drugs, did crime, we would be in a Mex prison for years! So why do we keep letting in alien Hispanics into the USA??
west on June 10 at 8:46 p.m.
If we Americans entered Mexico illegally and sold drugs, did crime, we would be in a Mex prison for years! So why do we keep letting in alien Hispanics into the USA??
flutieflakes on June 10 at 9:30 p.m.
“Legalizing drugs sends a simple message to our children. ‘It’s not so bad’”
Don’t see what’s wrong with telling your kids the truth.
Milan67 on June 10 at 10:59 p.m.
Well! I see that our law enforcement are on top rounding these
punks up and put them in the slammer. Put the illegal back where it came from.
arroyoribera on June 11 at 12:43 a.m.
Grant County Under Sheriff Turley’s comment about the “wrath of hell” coming down on people is out of line. Turley and other law enforcement have one job in these situations — to arrest people. They are arresting people accused of crimes, not guilty of crimes, at least not having been established as guilty under the U.S. system of law. We all know that in large round ups of people there are mistakes made, arrests of people who are innocent, people caught up as a result of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or being of the wrong color. As soon as the word gang begins to be used, we are in the extremely dangersous realm of code for “minorities of color”.
This was evident in 2004 in the case that occurred in Brewster, Washington and resulted in civil rights abuses and eventually lawsuits. In the case, the high school principal and police chief locked Latino students in the gym — without notifying parents or advising them of their rights — and attempted to coerce them into signing a statement about gangs. This was done with Latino students despite the presence of a white gang called the Orchard Monkey Killers. http://www.spokesmanreview.com/allstories-news-story.asp?date=020104&ID=s1481526
http://www.theskanner.com/index.php/article/view/id/2785
There are criminals, drug users and traffickers, and violent individuals in all communities. The unfortunate racial associations of gangs with minority communities provide license to racial profiling and aggressive policing (in this case in Grant County in a mistaken mixing of immigration enforcement with criminal enforcement which is a recipe for abuses and for creating distrust). That racial element and stereotyping also makes it difficult to recall facts, such as the fact that 2 of the 17 acts of domestic terrorism in the US from 1990 to 1996 were carried out by white supremacist gangs in Spokane (see FBI report at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/fbi/terroris.pdf )
A few other thoughts on gangs in this area can be found at:
http://spokanepoliceabuses.wordpress.com/2007/09/15/spokane-gang-crisis/
http://spokanepoliceabuses.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/urgent-call-tonight-gang-seminar-by-spokane-police-department/
David Brookbank
Orange on June 16 at 4:54 p.m.
Yawn….