Federal and local authorities in Los Angeles County arrested 10 members and associates of the 18th Street gang, primarily on federal narcotics charges, prosecutors have announced.
In a sweep that began Tuesday evening and continued into Wednesday, special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation, as well as sheriff’s deputies and Los Angeles police officers, took eight defendants into custody. A ninth defendant was arrested in Honolulu, and the 10th was arrested in Indianapolis.
Three other people who face federal charges were already in local custody, and five more defendants remain at large, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The arrests are the culmination of an HSI-led investigation that began in December 2014 and focused on the distribution and sale of methamphetamine and unlicensed sales of firearms.
During the course of the investigation, authorities said they seized almost nine pounds of meth and 14 firearms, including five assault rifles. The investigation led to six indictments that charge a total of 18 defendants.
Among those arrested were Giovanny “Sporty” Ochoa, 26, of Hawthorne, and Aveline “Fatboy” Villalba, 36, of South Los Angeles, who are charged with selling roughly one-quarter pound of meth in the fall of 2016 to an undercover operative.
Ochoa is additionally charged in relation to another quarter-pound sale, as well as transactions involving one-ounce quantities of meth.
If convicted of conspiracy and narcotics-distribution charges, Ochoa and Villalba each would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and could be sentenced to as much as life behind bars.
Ochoa, Villalba and the other six defendants arrested in the Los Angeles area were arraigned in federal court, where they pleaded not guilty and were ordered held without bond pending trial.
The two defendants arrested in other districts have also been ordered held without bond and are expected to be transported to Los Angeles in the coming weeks.
–City News Service