53 arrests in Crips gang bust
By Christopher N. Osher
The Denver Post
DENVER, Colo.— A metro gang task force has confiscated more than $1 million in cash and arrested 53 members of the Tre Tre Crips gang and their affiliates after an 18-month investigation.
At a news conference this afternoon, authorities said the suspects are “the worst of the worst.”
“The people involved in this indictment are violent gang members who make their living selling drugs, dealing with guns,” said Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey.
“This was an exceedingly difficult and dangerous operation” said U.S. Attorney Troy Eid.
The Tre Tre Crips gang is the largest subset of the Rollin’ 30s Crips, the first gang established in Denver.
A total of 49 people were arrested just Thursday on indictments related to the case, while four others were already in custody. One of those indicted is Brian Kenneth Hicks, who is jailed awaiting trial on attempted-murder charges in a case of witness intimidation and whose SUV may have been the source of the shots that killed Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams. Hicks was in jail at the time of Williams’ death.
Hicks is charged in the new indictment with conspiracy to distribute cocaine.
Authorities announced that the months-long investigation culminated overnight and early today when 450 law-enforcement officers fanned out throughout Colorado to serve arrest warrants.
During the course of the investigation, police seized $1.5 million in cash - including $100,000 today - dozens of firearms, more than 170 pounds of cocaine, more than 4 pounds of crack cocaine and marijuana, and three vehicles.
The Rollin’ 30s Crips were formed by a family that moved from one of the toughest neighborhoods of south-central Los Angeles to Denver in the 1980s.
The recent gang-style slaying of Denver Bronco Williams has brought a renewed focus on Denver’s gangs.
A federal grand jury this week issued a string of indictments against crack-cocaine trafficking organizations with ties to the town of Henderson in Adams County and El Paso, Texas. A person familiar with the investigation said the indictments were related to the conclusion of the 18-month investigation and that the connections would be revealed this afternoon.
In one of those indictments, 16 defendants were named, including Luis Camacho-Levario and Alejandro Camacho-Levario, accused of participating in a drug-trafficking enterprise that on Nov. 28, 2006, distributed more than 20 kilograms of a cocaine mixture.
The other indictment names 24 defendants, including Edgar Diaz-Calderon and Eustacia Diaz-Calderon.
The indictment states that a Henderson residence was purchased for $370,000 in the name of Eustacia Diaz-Calderon in 2004. It states that another defendant, Edgar Munoz-Gomez, obtained more than $260,000 in cocaine-sale proceeds from the residence in September 2006 and attempted to transport the money to Mexico.
On Oct. 26, four other co-defendants obtained about $498,000 in cocaine-sale proceeds from the house and attempted to move the money, the indictment states.
Copyright 2007 The Denver Post