The Avenues, which police estimate has about 400 members, had a bout of infamy in 1995 when members shot and killed 3-year-old Stephanie Kuhen, whose family made a wrong turn into a dead-end street in Cypress Park.
The dense configuration of apartments on Drew Street allows gangbangers to disappear when police roll in.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday, June 27, 2008 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 41 words Type of Material: Correction
Gangs: An article in Thursday's Section A about a gang sweep in Glassell Park should have noted that the 10-month investigation that resulted in the arrests of 28 was led by a Los Angeles task force of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
"This is a claustrophobic neighborhood, and the gang members use it to their advantage," City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said.
Delgadillo's office shut down Maria Leon's house on Drew Street last year with a nuisance abatement lawsuit. More than 40 arrests had been made there in 2006. During a raid in 2002, police found cocaine, marijuana, a Tec-9 assault weapon, ammunition, a small explosive and a cellphone that was ringing with customers' drug orders, according to court records. Six children under 10 were inside, including Leon's youngest child, a 3-month-old boy.
Leon and her family moved to Victorville, where the Internal Revenue Service recently seized their home as part of this investigation.
Eighteen agencies were involved in the probe, including the LAPD; federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, FBI, IRS, Glendale police and the Los Angeles city attorney.
On Wednesday, Delgadillo announced 10 more nuisance abatement lawsuits to clean out properties in the area. The suits aim to force property owners to provide armed security guards, security cameras, strict tenant screening and the eviction of anyone involved in drug sales or use.
"The people who live in this neighborhood are prisoners in their own homes," he said.
Authorities said the gang routinely threatened witnesses to their crimes, creating a climate of fear that allowed members to operate freely.
In one allegation detailed in the indictment, three members robbed a residence on Marmion Way, using a 9-millimeter handgun and an M-11 assault rifle.
When Real got word that the victims were to appear at a police lineup, he directed a subordinate to "instruct the victims . . . that they were to 'keep their mouths shut' and not identify any of the Avenues or Drew Street gang members at the lineup that day or [he] would retaliate against them," the indictment said.
Two of the victims did what he said, but one did not, the indictment said. Real allegedly drove to that person's house that night and threatened to retaliate against them or their family if they went to court again.
