Massive city sting nets 100 arrests

Nearly a quarter of the 105 suspects nabbed for theft, drugs and weapons crimes during the biggest undercover effort in Gilroy police history hail from the Garlic Capital, while local officials and supporting agencies say there are additional fugitives yet to be found.
“This is not over,” Gilroy Police Department Chief Denise Turner said Friday afternoon during a wall-to-wall press conference at Gilroy City Hall, where local, state and federal officials announced the striking results from “Operation Garlic Press,” a 16-month, 39-agency investigation prompted by a rash of auto burglaries and gang violence in Gilroy.
The wave of arrests, which began Wednesday and wrapped up Friday, included 53 known gang members from five counties, state Attorney General Kamala Harris said.
Twenty-four of the suspects – some all-too-familiar faces to GPD – are Gilroy residents, Turner said. The other defendants are residents of cities in Santa Clara, Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz and Alameda counties.
Crime in Gilroy, a community sometimes marred by burglary sprees and violent crimes, should plummet “very quickly,” a smiling Turner said Friday.
“We will see a reduction in crime. That is my prediction,” she said.
During Monday night’s Gilroy City Council meeting, Turner introduced GPD Officer Jeff Roccaforte as one the “masterminds” behind the undercover operation. Council members and roughly 20 audience members applauded Roccaforte. Turner then described to the Council how hundreds of officers gathered at 5:30 a.m. outside the GPD on Friday, preparing to “hit their targets” and make arrests by 7 a.m.
Dozens of law enforcement officials from the U.S. Department of Justice, the California Attorney General’s Office, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office and the California Highway Patrol worked more than 10,000 hours during the operation, officials said.
More than 400 officers reportedly participated in the three-day surge, and nearly every GPD officer participated in the investigation and arrests.
Officers recovered 87 stolen vehicles and roughly 50 firearms, including handguns, shotguns, rifles and automatic weapons. The raids also turned up more than three pounds of methamphetamine, 28.5 grams of heroin, and marijuana, cocaine, hashish, oxycontin and ecstasy, officials said.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said many of the suspects are “career criminals,” calling them the “scourge of life and a cancer in our community.”
Faces of the suspects were displayed on a large poster board at Friday’s press conference.
Of the 53 suspected gang members arrested, 51 are believed to be aligned with the Norteno faction, Attorney General Harris said. She said the other two are known Surenos.
Twelve suspects facing federal gun and drug charges were arraigned Friday morning in a San Jose courtroom, First Assistant U.S. Attorney General Brian Stretch said. If convicted, those suspects could face between five years to life in prison, depending on the volume of narcotics found, Stretch said.
Officials stressed there would likely be more arrests in the coming days. GPD Sgt. Chad Gallacinao confirmed Monday law enforcement officials were searching for additional suspects related to “Operation Garlic Press,” but wouldn’t say how many or reveal their identities. He also wouldn’t say who came up with the operation’s title, saying only that it was “locally dubbed.”
Officials were also mum Friday over just how undercover officers unearthed the suspects and their treasure troves of narcotics and stolen items. It was the GPD’s tight-lipped nature that made the operation so successful, Turner said.
Because Gilroy is a small town – its population less than 50,000 – the efforts had be kept secret, Turner said.
“Word gets around fast,” she said, adding that criminals sometimes use smart phones or police scanners as “counter-surveillance” and a means of avoiding law enforcement.
“We had to be creative. We had to go undercover,” Turner said.
Making it even tougher was the fact that nearly every suspect contacted by the GPD during the investigation was no stranger.
“They are pretty much all known to us,” Turner said.
Harris, who came on as the state’s attorney general this past January, said the collaboration began in May 2010, when Gilroy police officials sought help following “a rash of burglaries and theft” by suspected gang members and violent criminals.
“We saw some trends we weren’t liking,” Turner said about reaching out to the state officials.
The Attorney General’s Office also feared the crimes were beyond the control of a single agency and posed an immediate risk to the region.
“We suspected that it might grow,” Harris said of the violent crimes.
With the assistance from state and federal officials, GPD and other regional agencies began their far-reaching undercover work. The operation yielded 186 criminal investigations and the identification of more than 110 suspects, who will be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office.
On several occasions during Friday’s press conference, Harris and Chief Turner gushed over the collaborative efforts needed to complete the operation.
“This operation represents the best of what we do as law enforcement,” Harris said.
Stephen Herkins, special agent in charge from the ATF, called the operation “phenomenal,” pointing to dozens of leaders from law enforcement departments present at City Hall. Some were in full police uniform, while others donned suits and ties.
“We invested a lot of time and resources in this, and it’s worth it,” Herkins said.
When asked if the full-scale operation had made Gilroy a safer place, Mayor Al Pinheiro said the suspects’ and their associates “are certainly going to notice that we won’t tolerate that in Gilroy.”
“I think, overall, the community feels we’re doing what we can with what we have to say this community is safe, and we continue to make that a priority,” Pinheiro said. “Also, I think this sends a message that we’re not just the little sleepy community that’s not paying attention to what’s going on around us.”