POLICE SAY ROBBERY RING BROKEN UP : SUSPECTS ACCUSED OF BEING VALLEY'S COLORFUL BANDITS.Byline: Jaxon Van Derbeken Daily News Staff Writer Police say they have put a damper damp·er n. 1. One that deadens, restrains, or depresses: Rain put a damper on our picnic plans. 2. An adjustable plate, as in the flue of a furnace or stove, for controlling the draft. on a ring called the colorful bandits, tied to more than 65 holdups at liquor stores and small markets in the San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. since July. The ring, which numbered as many as seven members, was broken last month after police put some suspects in the case under surveillance, said Detective Erwin Velasco of 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. Police Department's Robbery Homicide Division Robbery Homicide Division (RHD) was an American police procedural television series on CBS, created by Barry Schindel with famed executive producer Michael Mann. . The robbers were known as the colorful bandits for the bright shirts and baseball caps they donned to commit a string of crimes in the cities of Burbank and San Fernando San Fernando, city, Argentina San Fernando (săn fərnăn`dō), city (1991 pop. 144,761), Buenos Aires prov., E Argentina. It is a district administrative center in the Greater Buenos Aires area. and across the Valley. The take in the crimes ranged from $300 to $6,000, he said. ``They committed over 65 crimes in the San Fernando Valley. We have filed over 400 felony felony (fĕl`ənē), any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. counts against all seven, and that's out of 51 crimes,'' he said. At least one of the suspects admitted having a drug problem, Velasco said. ``They had no other means of support,'' he said. ``One of them we interviewed said they had not been able to find jobs; this was an easy way to make money.'' Velasco said that the two leaders of the ring recruited participants from the neighborhood and people they knew from their hometowns in Mexico. Semiautomatic handguns were used in the 65 robberies July 30 through Nov. 5, Velasco said. In one of the crimes, a store clerk in San Fernando was shot Oct. 23, Velasco said. The clerk was released after treatment for a wound to his upper body. Police said they identified one suspect by fingerprints Impressions or reproductions of the distinctive pattern of lines and grooves on the skin of human fingertips. Fingerprints are reproduced by pressing a person's fingertips into ink and then onto a piece of paper. and that suspect told them about two other ring members. The three suspects were arrested Nov. 7, Velasco said, and two handguns were seized. Three days later, he said, West Valley patrol officers spotted a vehicle they believed the suspects had used, and they put it under surveillance. Four armed suspects were arrested that day and another gun was seized, Velasco said. Suspects accused of being leaders of the ring were identified as Jorge Arreola, 27, of Van Nuys, arrested Nov. 10, and Paz Chavez, 27, of Van Nuys, who was arrested on the Nov. 7. |
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