DOJ alleges indictment of members of SFV Peckerwoods, a white supremacist gang in San Fernando Valley | Crime

LOS ANGELES (CNS) — Forty-two members of what prosecutors name a San Fernando Valley-based white supremacist gang have been arrested in reference to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday alleging a years-long legal operation that included drug trafficking, weapons violations and COVID-19 and mortgage fraud.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, 29 individuals named in the indictment had been arrested Wednesday in a sequence of raids involving the Los Angeles Police Department and different businesses. Thirteen different defendants had been already in custody, prosecutors mentioned.

Prosecutors mentioned the gang has been allied with the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia, and its members use “Nazi tattoos, graffiti and iconography to indicate their violent white supremacy extremist ideology.”

A complete of 68 defendants are named in the 76-count indictment, which alleges offenses together with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, conspiracy to distribute managed substances, distribution of managed substances, financial institution fraud, conspiracy to commit financial institution fraud, aggravated id theft, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon.

The gang's “violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada mentioned in a assertion saying the indictment. “By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the (gang is) a destructive force. In prosecuting the members of the … criminal organization, our office is carrying out its mission to protect the public from the most dangerous threats.”

During the investigation, legislation enforcement seized “large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin,” prosecutors mentioned.

The indictment alleges legal actions relationship again to at the least December 2016, saying the gang used social media — together with a members-only Facebook group — to share data and goal individuals who violated the gang's guidelines. It alleges that “to generate revenue for the gang, its members trafficked narcotics, including fentanyl, heroin and methamphetamine,” prosecutors mentioned.

Gang members additionally generated income by means of robberies, identity-theft schemes and monetary fraud, together with bogus functions for Paycheck Protection Program funds, the place had been made accessible to help companies impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The proliferation of gang-related organized crime deteriorates the core of our society,” Los Angeles Police Department interim Chief Dominic Choi mentioned in a assertion. “Taking guns out of the hands of gang members and drugs from our streets is just one more step towards reducing this deterioration. Today is yet another example of how local, regional, and federal law enforcement, with a matched dedication, are working together to investigate, apprehend and prosecute criminals.”