70 SUSPECTS ROUNDED UP; SECRET SHERIFF'S OPERATION BASED IN RENTED STORE.Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer A four-month undercover sting operation Noun 1. sting operation - a complicated confidence game planned and executed with great care (especially an operation implemented by undercover agents to apprehend criminals) aimed at Antelope Valley's burglars and car thieves came to a conclusion Wednesday with 330 deputies fanning across the region to arrest more than 70 suspects. Financed by a $335,000 federal grant, undercover sheriff's deputies worked from Nov. 15 through March 14 in a rented store within sight of the Lancaster sheriff's station, spending $83,000 to buy $1 million worth of stolen cars, cell phones, VCRs, guns, drugs and other property. ``Anything you could imagine, these people were trying to sell,'' said Los Angles County Sheriff Sherman Block. ``This shows you what can be accomplished by government agencies who have the funds and law enforcement.'' For the first time since the 1992 Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. riots, the entire Sheriff's Department's Special Enforcement Bureau was activated. Twenty teams of six to 20 deputies each were dispersed dis·perse v. dis·persed, dis·pers·ing, dis·pers·es v.tr. 1. a. To drive off or scatter in different directions: The police dispersed the crowd. b. starting at 4 a.m. Wednesday to 73 locations, including homes, schools - even the Lancaster courthouse - looking for Looking for In the context of general equities, this describing a buy interest in which a dealer is asked to offer stock, often involving a capital commitment. Antithesis of in touch with. suspects identified in the sting. ``It's a massive movement,'' said Lt. Ron Shreves. ``It's a major movement.'' By 11:30 a.m., deputies from throughout the sheriff's department and a small crew from the Kern Kern, river, 155 mi (249 km) long, rising in the S Sierra Nevada Mts., E Calif., and flowing south, then southwest to a reservoir in the extreme southern part of the San Joaquin valley. The river has Isabella Dam as its chief facility. County Sheriff's Department had arrested 55 people and expected arrests to last into the evening. Seventeen people had been arrested before Wednesday. ``If they haven't been arrested, they will be,'' said Shreves. ``We're looking for them now.'' Deputies surrounded a home on 12th Street East for two hours after receiving a tip that one of their suspects was inside and armed. Four other people were also in the house. ``They came out once we had the special weapons team in place,'' said Lt. Rod Penner. ``We were able to call everybody outside.'' At many locations, deputies found additional stolen merchandise, including weapons, drugs and cash. ``This is the pinnacle of my eight years of being involved in the city,'' said Lancaster Mayor Frank Roberts Frank Roberts may refer to:
The covert project's code name was ``Men In Black'' - after the hit science-fiction movie about a super-secret agency that tracks outer-space aliens - and Wednesday's arrests were dubbed dub 1 tr.v. dubbed, dub·bing, dubs 1. To tap lightly on the shoulder by way of conferring knighthood. 2. To honor with a new title or description. 3. ``April Fools Roundup.'' Deputies said they came up with the operation as a way to reduce rising rates of residential burglaries, auto burglaries and auto thefts in Lancaster. The city provided a federal grant to help pay for deputies' overtime, rent for the city-owned storefront, high-tech surveillance gear and payments to the thieves. ``Habitual Regular or customary; usual. A habitual drunkard, for example, is an individual who regularly becomes intoxicated as opposed to a person who drinks infrequently. thieves were taking a big bite Big Bite was an Australian sketch comedy broadcast on the Seven Network in an evening timeslot. The show starred Chris Lilley of We Can Be Heroes and Andrew O'Keefe, who would go on to fame as host of the Seven Network's Deal or No Deal, Dragons' Den, The Rich List of our crime,'' Shreves said. ``We targeted those property crimes, and gangsters.'' To keep the operation secret, even from other deputies, the department rented a ``safe house'' where the undercover deputies could change clothes after their shifts, and where detective work was done and evidence was stored. Deputies switched vehicles at the safe house before driving home. Initially, business was slow, but after a month they had more than they could handle. ``We had people paging us day and night,'' said Deputy Brian Hickey, one of five deputies who worked undercover. ``They called our store or paged us to tell us what they had or what they could get us.'' Hickey, borrowed from the West Hollywood West Hollywood A community of southern California northeast of Beverly Hills. It is mainly residential. Population: 36,600. Sheriff's Station for the operation, grew his hair and beard and wore several earrings to fit into his new role. Hidden video cameras set up inside the storefront in the 400 block of Lumber lumber, term for timber that has been cut into boards for use as a building material. The major steps in producing lumber involve logging (the felling and preparation of timber for shipment to sawmills), sawing the logs into boards, grading the boards according to Street - across the Metrolink tracks from the Lancaster train station - taped thieves selling the undercover officers AK-47 assault rifles A
Caught on video were three carjackers who ``high-fived'' each other inside the shop, minutes after stealing a car from a mother and son outside of the Lancaster City Library. ``Before the woman victim had time to regain her composure com·po·sure n. A calm or tranquil state of mind; self-possession. [From compose.] composure Noun the state of being calm or unworried Noun , the suspects were in our lobby changing their clothes,'' said Shreves. ``They were trying to conceal their identity.'' Normally deputies refrained from arresting suspects to avoid blowing the operation's cover before it was over, but made exceptions for thieves who were violent, committed lots of crimes or otherwise posed a special danger. In those cases, deputies found some other pretext PRETEXT. The reasons assigned to justify an act, which have only the appearance of truth, and which are without foundation; or which if true are not the true reasons for such act. Vattel, liv. 3, c. 3, 32. for arresting them without compromising the storefront. Arrested that way were the carjackers - one adult and two juveniles. The adult has already been convicted, Shreves said. They also arrested a man who they caught watching their storefront through binoculars, apparently casing the place to burglarize bur·glar·ize v. bur·glar·ized, bur·glar·iz·ing, bur·glar·iz·es v.tr. 1. To enter and steal from (a building or other premises). 2. it later. ``We found people checking up on us,'' said Shreves. ``But we had a business license, a bank account and driver's licenses Noun 1. driver's license - a license authorizing the bearer to drive a motor vehicle driver's licence, driving licence, driving license license, permit, licence - a legal document giving official permission to do something that all came back to cold addresses.'' ``We were one of them for four months,'' said Shreves. ``We were pretty slick.'' Even after they closed their operation, officials said that they were still getting calls. ``We could have brought things from here to eternity,'' said Shreves. ``We didn't want the operation to go on too long that we encouraged criminal activity.'' For the arrests Wednesday, a tent was set up in the Lancaster Sheriff's Station parking lot where the suspects were photographed and booked into custody. The station's cells were cleared of their regular inmates to accommodate Wednesday's influx, and a briefing room was transformed into a juvenile detention center A detention center or a detention centre is any location used for detention. Specifically, it can mean:
PROJECT ``MEN IN BLACK'' Duration of operation: Nov. 15-March 14. Total cost of operation: just under $300,000. Amount spent to purchase stolen property: $83,595. Value of stolen property purchased: $1 million. Firearms This is an extensive list of small arms — pistol, machine gun, grenade launcher, anti-tank rifle — that includes variants. : Top - 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A
Automobiles: 79. Bicycles: 19. Suspects identified: 90. with criminal history: 93 percent. with gang affiliation: 40 percent. on parole or probation: 38 percent. under age 18: 23 percent. Suspects arrested: 72 (as of 3 p.m. Wednesday). Officers involved in Wednesday's arrests: 331. CAPTION(S): 4 Photos, Box PHOTO (1--Color in AV Edition only) Sheriff's officials displayed these weapons seized during the four-month sting on Wednesday. Jeff Goldwater/Daily News (2-3) (2 ran in AV Edition only) Above, surveillance video shows a man displaying a gun to undercover sheriff's deputies in December. Right, A sheriff's deputy escorts Dominee Martin, 19, from his Lancaster apartment on Wednesday during a sweep of sting suspects. Bhavna Mistry/Daily News (4) (Ran in AV Edition only) This Lancaster storefront hosted a four-month undercover stolen-property sting that ended Wednesday with more than 70 arrests. Jeff Goldwater/Daily News BOX: PROJECT ``MEN IN BLACK'' (See text) |
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