STOCKTON, Calif. — A street gang crackdown in central California resulted in 88 arrests and the seizure of 58 firearms, state officials said Thursday.
Those arrested this month in Stockton are suspected in a series of violent crimes, including robberies and at least two homicides, California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office said in a statement.
During the course of the investigation, state and city law enforcement officers executed 24 search warrants and 18 arrest warrants in the Stockton area.
“This investigation was part of our on-going group gun violence intervention strategy,” Stockton's new Police Chief Stan McFadden said. “The collaborative effort with our law enforcement partners was based on focused enforcement for those groups that continued violence in our city.”
Twelve ghost guns were among the 58 weapons seized by authorities in the five-month operation, which also netted 88 arrests of people between the ages of 15 and 38.
"We can't even quantify how many lives have been saved by removing these guns off the streets," Chief McFadden said.
The operation came during a time when the city of Stockton saw homicide numbers soaring above previous years, between January and June of 2022.
As of Thursday, Stockton Police have investigated 21 homicide cases since the start of the year, compared to only 15 cases reported between the same period of January through June in 2021. According to Stockton City Manager Harry Black, of those 21 homicides so far this year, less than half are gang-related.
The Stockton Police Department identified the gangs targeted in the operation as the Northside Gangster Crips, Sutter Street Crips, Flyboys, Nightingale EBK, Norteños and West Side Bloods.
"Operation Hybrid Havoc was created in response to an increase in firearm-related violent crimes involving members of these groups in the city of Stockton between 2019 and 2021," Chief McFadden said. "It's not often that an investigation of this magnitude results in so many firearms being confiscated, so many criminals put in jail."
In addition to weapons, officers seized cash and drugs including MDMA, cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and marijuana, the statement said.
"It sends a strong message," Chief McFadden said. "We have to collaborate because as we all know, they go beyond the perimeters of each city, they travel to the east bay, the north bay, the central valley and so on."
The operation, in partnership with the California Department of Justice, California Highway Patrol, San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, Lodi Police Department and San Joaquin District Attorney's Office, will continue according to the Stockton Police Department.
Officials say they anticipate making more arrests as part of the operation but will also continue to work with the city's Office of Violence Prevention which aims to stop crime by mentoring individuals identified as possible victims or perpetrators of crimes.
"This community deserves the opportunity to thrive and today the people of San Joaquin County, and particularly Stockton, are safe," said San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar. "If individuals think this is the last they are going to see of us, they're wrong. We're going to stay on this, we're going to push it and grind it into the ground."
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Press Conference: California's Attorney General, Stockton’s new police chief and the San Joaquin District Attorney announce results of multiagency gang takedown in Stockton