The Press Enterprise
RIVERSIDE, Calif. — East Side Riva gang members regularly acted as a tentacle of the powerful Mexican Mafia, trafficking methamphetamine and protecting their turf with attacks on black people and bystanders, authorities alleged Wednesday in a sweeping federal complaint.
Charges came as 650 officers from 34 local and federal agencies swarmed the gang’s territory Wednesday morning to make 50 arrests, including Riva leaders and members of their rivals, the 1200 Blocc Crips.
The operation’s sheer size and scope - helicopters hovered over Riverside’s Eastside neighborhood as officers in protective vests and helmets served warrants - was called unprecedented.
Dubbed Operation Promise, it culminated a 16-month investigation aimed at crippling gang hierarchy and cutting off its cash flow from drugs and weapons.
“We hope we made an impact today,” Riverside Police Chief Russ Leach said. “Gangs don’t own the parks and the streets. The citizens do.”
One of 20 men indicted was Salvador Orozco Hernandez Jr., 45, an accused “shot caller” for the Mexican Mafia’s Inland interests. While in prison for attempted murder, he is accused of directing Riva drug distribution and “tax” collection.
The Moreno Valley residents suspected of being No. 1 and No. 2 in the Riva power structure, Robert Zavala Carillo, 37, and Mark Alexander Gil, 35, were arrested Wednesday night after being considered fugitives for much of the day. Both are named in the indictment unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
“They don’t have jobs … They’re living off the fruits of their drug sales,” Riverside County District Attorney Rod Pacheco said in an afternoon news conference.
He spoke above a table lined with seized items, including assault rifles, shotguns, knives, armor-piercing bullets and two venomous rattlesnakes.
Neighborhood views
While Riva’s stranglehold on the Eastside gets much attention, Pacheco noted that “99 percent of the residents are decent, hard-working people.”
But some in the neighborhood say the bold takedowns are not helping police-community relations.
Christina Abraham, 18, said her brothers were detained in Wednesday morning’s raids. She said she was loaded into a caged van while officials searched her home. She also saw officers knock down doors and break windows.
“There was no need for that,” she said. “There was no need for all those guns.”
In 2007, Riverside police and county prosecutors teamed to target East Side Riva with the county’s first gang injunction. It remains controversial, but a local criminologist said firm suppression methods must be balanced with prevention programs.
Larry Gaines, chairman of Cal State San Bernardino’s Criminal Justice Department, said police reaching out to the community has a place, but it doesn’t mean hardcore criminals will get the message.
“Sooner or later, the police have to make a statement to those individuals who have gotten out of control,” he said. “Otherwise, community policing isn’t going to work.”
Gangs in ‘race war’
Separate from the actions against Riva - which were a collaboration with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement - local authorities also arrested members of the gang’s neighbors, the predominantly African-American 1200 Blocc Crips.
Despite Wednesday’s arrests, officials said about three-quarters of the 700 Riva members are likely still in the community and active. They estimated there are about 200 active members of the 1200 Blocc Crips.
The two gangs once worked together to target rivals in the Casa Blanca region of central Riverside, officials said, until the Mexican Mafia ordered the Rivas to start attacking blacks.
In the 20 years since, Riva gang members have been convicted and sentenced in several hate crimes against innocent bystanders.
This includes the 2005 shooting of a Nigerian tourist on University Avenue and separate 2002 slayings of 13-year-old African-American boys.
“To put it bluntly, it’s a race war,” Pacheco said. “A lot of innocent people are being killed. Crime has gone down, but it’s still violent.”
The federal indictment alleges Riva members have orders to attack people who enter their territory and are hostile to African-Americans, “regardless of whether such individuals are affiliated with a gang.”
Wide-reaching probe
Investigators spent months with confidential informants and wiretapping suspects’ phones in order to compile evidence for the complaint. Local district attorney’s investigators worked with Riverside police gang detectives and FBI and DEA special agents.
They said that Riva leaders communicate with Mexican Mafia elders in coded language to discuss large-scale meth trafficking and “tribute” payments for the prison gang’s protection.
A federal agent who aided in Wednesday’s operation said these kinds of relationships mean city gang investigations often end up growing beyond any presumed geographical and jurisdictional boundaries.
Riva-related arrests also were made in Colton, Perris and Corona.
“This is not just a local problem,” said Don Roberts, a supervisory special agent with the FBI in Riverside. “It really cannot be done with any one agency.”
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