Avenues gang bastion is demolished

Some years, the street accounted for up to 20% of the violent crime in the 30-square-mile Northeast Division, police said.

For such a small area, Drew Street absorbed more than its share of city resources.

Police used special task forces, undercover drug operations and constant patrols to attack the gang problem. Drew Street's graffiti-scarred trees were regularly trimmed to give cops better visibility. Graffiti removers visited daily, to negligible effect. Street lights were covered with bulletproof glass.

Still, a stubborn culture of criminality reigned, largely because of a web of families from Tlalchapa, Guerrero, in the Tierra Caliente, a region of Mexico known for its violence. Police estimate that members of dozens of these extended families belonged to the Avenues gang and had built a network that proved hard to dismantle.

The neighborhood drew wider attention after a wild shootout between police and gang members last February.

The incident started when a car full of Drew Street gangsters allegedly shot and killed a former Cypress Park gang member outside an elementary school. Police later spotted the car on Drew Street. Maria Leon's son, Daniel, fired an assault rifle at the officers, who fatally shot him. Two others were arrested and charged with murder.

Since then, police and other law enforcement agencies have focused intensely on Drew Street.

In April, Maria Leon was arrested by federal agents and charged with illegally re-entering the country. The mother of 13 had previously been convicted of felony drug, firearms and child endangerment charges in three separate cases dating back to 1992.

In June, hundreds of heavily armed police and federal agents stormed into the neighborhood and arrested 28 people in an attempt to root out the Avenues gang members who had ruled the area with near-impunity.

A sweeping indictment named 70 defendants -- mostly connected to the Drew Street clique of the larger Avenues gang. Of those named, 26 were already in custody.

In December, suspected members of the Drew Street clique, Guillermo Hernandez, 20, and Carlos "Stony" Velasquez, 24, Leon's nephew, were arrested and charged with the Aug. 2 killing of Juan Abel Escalante, a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy who lived in Cypress Park.

Residents and police say things have calmed down considerably on Drew Street.

But neighbors are still afraid to talk openly for fear of retaliation.