LA Times is already reporting it, even tho' it's apparently still going on at about 9 AM per the scanner: about 250 officers from the LA Count Sheriff's Dept., LAPD, Pasadena PD, and Drug Enforcement Administration are conducting a sweep of parole violators, targeting members of the Pasadena Denver Lanes gang. Says the Times:
One of the 22 law enforcement teams searched three homes in the Altadena area and found a shotgun, shotgun shells and a small amount of marijuana in one of the houses. The person on parole who lived there was arrested.
Locally, our readers reported police activity across from Muir High School, and officers using the Rose Bowl for staging. More as we get it.
UPDATE 12:30 PM: Altadena Det. Lt. Joseph Dempsey tells us that the sweep involved 71 locations, trying to find 16 felony probationers and 55 parolees, all members of the Pasadena Denver Lanes. Officers contacted 16 locations in Altadena and one in La Crescenta. A total of 15 arrests were made in the sweep, with three for firearms violations and the rest for parole violations, outstanding warrants, and narcotics possession.
The operation started at 4 AM this morning and took about seven hours, Dempsey said, "not counting countless hours putting it together -- Altadena detectives and the Safe Streets group spent weeks planning the operation."
The next step, Dempsey said, is to either file charges or go through parole hearings for violations. For the parolees who were not at the locations -- sometimes they will give the address of a relative without actually living there, Dempsey said -- officers will seek parole violations charges.
"We're trying to let these gang members know othat Altadena is not a place to pursue gang activites," Dempsey said. "We're trying to continue the pressure on them."
