Dozens taken into custody in FBI, LAPD sweep of violent South LA gang

Dozens of members of a South LA gang and their associates were rounded up at a Boyle Heights site Thursday by a multi-agency task force that served search and arrest warrants throughout Los Angeles overnight.

A total of 28 people were arrested Thursday on federal racketeering, narcotics, and firearms charges from six grand jury indictments, according to the Department of Justice. According to the federal indictment naming 41 members and associates, the gang is linked to a Mexican Mafia prison gang and makes money through the sales of drugs and firearms.

At least three of those indicted were already in custody, and 10 remain at large.

During Thursday's sweep, the Los Angeles Metropolitan Task Force on Violent Gangs also seized 47 firearms, 199 kilograms of methamphetamine, 13.6 kilograms of fentanyl, 27 kilograms of cocaine, more than 7 kilograms of heroin, and 283 kilograms of marijuana. $140,000 in cash was also seized, and the indictment also alleged members of the gang operated two unlicensed marijuana dispensaries.

Thursday's sweep was the culmination of four-year investigation dubbed Operation Down the Rabbit Hole, which found that some of the gang's drug trafficking business sent cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl through the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx, and UPS. 

One of the indictments also implicated one of the defendants in a March 2020 home invasion robbery of a marijuana dealer at a home in Woodland Hills that led to a gun fight and one of the robbers being shot in the stomach.

Federal officials say the gang was also quick to turn on their own, with one of the indictments outlining the attempted murder of one member who was stabbed in the head and the torso several times for betraying the gang.