Police Raids Orange County

State and federal wildlife officials raided a wild-game barbecue near Irvine Lake on Friday, resulting in hundreds of angry, $75-per-person ticket holders being turned away at the gates. About 15 investigators and agents of the state Department of Fish and Game and the U.S. Wildlife Service descended on the site in cars and helicopters, some with guns drawn, officials said. But there were no arrests.

The founder of a medicinal marijuana club was arrested after police raided his rented home in Santa Ana and uprooted 40 marijuana plants in the backyard, police said Friday. Marvin Chavez, 46, was released late Thursday after police searched his three-bedroom home on Meriday Lane. Police said their investigation is continuing and that Chavez has not been charged.

More than 200 police officers arrested a dozen suspected members of a notorious Orange County street gang in a four-county raid Wednesday stemming from last month's slaying of a 15-year-old Santa Ana boy. The Asian gang, which calls itself the Nip Family, with members in Orange, Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties, has been connected to homicides, assaults, home-invasion robberies and drive-by shootings, police said.

Hoping to end mounting gang violence in Anaheim, a task force of local police and immigration officials arrested seven alleged gang members Thursday during an early-morning raid. Anaheim detectives asked the Immigration and Naturalization Service to help after determining that four of the suspects had been deported for other crimes but reentered the country illegally, police officials said.

There are gangs in Orange County that have been around much longer, but police say none in recent years has developed a bigger reputation for criminal activity than Santa Ana's 6th Street gang. "Homicide, rape, assault, you name it," Santa Ana police Lt. Robert Helton said Wednesday. "They have been terrorizing people around here for a long time. . . . They are not much better than animals."

The city of Santa Ana won a court victory Wednesday against Paddy Murphy's, a nude dancing establishment that sought a preliminary injunction to stop police from raiding the club and arresting its dancers on charges of lewd conduct. Paddy Murphy's filed a lawsuit earlier this month, alleging that the arrests of the dancers infringed on their First Amendment protections and created a chilling effect at the club.

Police on Thursday afternoon launched the city's second major narcotics sweep under an experimental, federal anti-crime program. Unlike a June 12 sweep which resulted in 30 arrests, Thursday's crackdown on several blocks of Myrtle Street yielded only four arrests. Police said the handful of arrests was a sign that their presence and the city's Operation Weed and Seed program was proving to be a success.

More than five years after police swept through one of Santa Ana's toughest neighborhoods in a massive raid, crime has plummeted, a gang once considered the most violent in Orange County is crippled and residents say they feel liberated to once again stroll along the streets.

A small army of police and FBI agents swooped down on a troubled Santa Ana neighborhood Wednesday after securing indictments against more than 100 suspected drug and weapons dealers in what officials called an all-out push to clean up an area seemingly impervious to the recent drops in crime. Police described the sweep as the biggest in Orange County history, capping a seven-month investigation in which a gang member-turned-informant infiltrated some of the region's most notorious street gangs.

It's hard for taco stand manager Alex Leon to get excited about the big drops in crime across Orange County. In his corner of west Santa Ana, drug dealing and street crimes remains a part of life, and he's been robbed at gunpoint at least six times in the last five years.

A man who authorities suspect in the deaths of racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife accused sheriff's deputies Friday of raiding his home and taking documents protected by attorney-client privilege. Michael Goodwin said Orange County sheriff's deputies took the documents when they searched his Dana Point home Thursday in connection with the arrest of his brother on drug charges.

A man authorities suspect in the slayings of racing legend Mickey Thompson and his wife accused sheriff's deputies Friday of raiding his home and taking documents protected by attorney-client privilege. Michael Goodwin said Orange County sheriff's deputies took the documents when they searched his Dana Point home Thursday in connection with the arrest of his brother on drug charges. He said deputies spent 90 minutes in his home, photographing some documents and taking others.

To Juan Lopez, the rock-strewn rail bed looked like the ideal shortcut through Santa Ana. For others, the gleaming Metrolink rails looked like the perfect place to eat lunch or smoke pot. Or at least that's how it looked before the trainload of police rolled up.

The Orange Police Department and other law enforcement agencies served 15 search warrants Thursday in connection with a March 26 gang-related shooting, police said. A confrontation between rival gangs led to the shooting of two men, both of whom survived, said Capt. Art Romo of the Orange Police Department. The primary suspect, Emiliano Mojica, 19, was arrested in Santa Ana early Thursday along with six others, Romo said. Mojica was booked into Orange County Jail on a charge of attempted murder.

Orange County jurors awarded the owner of a Garden Grove auto body shop more than $1 million in damages after deciding that law enforcement officers raided the store without a warrant, a lawyer said Wednesday. Jurors concluded that the team of officers conspired to violate Merritt L. Sharp Sr.'s civil rights when it burst into his shop in June 1997 in a search for drugs, said Sharp's attorney, Jerry L. Steering.

Sometime during the next television season, video footage from the county's most massive "show of force" will be shown on a television show that airs dramatic and sometimes tragic footage. "Operation Orion" was a dawn raid March 15 in a troubled Santa Ana neighborhood in which FBI agents and police officers arrested dozens of suspected drug and weapons dealers. The multi-agency crime-fighting effort was headed by Santa Ana Police Department Lt. Bill Tegelier.

Nine alleged gang members were arrested and 20 guns confiscated during a police raid of 11 county homes on Thursday, authorities said. The raid stemmed from an investigation of a July 22 drive-by shooting near Newland Street and Westminster Avenue in Garden Grove that left a 20-year-old man injured in one eye, said Garden Grove Police Lt. John Woods. Law enforcement officers from five agencies arrested three people in Westminster and six others in an apartment complex in Midway City, Woods said.

In an attempt to crack down on a surging counterfeit trade in Orange County, state investigators and police raided a Westminster residence Wednesday where they seized bogus Chanel handbags and arrested three people suspected of manufacturing the fakes. The three workers were charged with counterfeiting a registered trademark. If convicted, they face fines of up to $1,000 each and as much as a year in jail.

In an effort to combat gang activity, police served search warrants on 14 homes in Orange and Los Angeles counties early Wednesday and arrested an adult and a juvenile, authorities said. Rudy Sanchez, 30, was taken into custody for resisting arrest, and a 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of possessing ammunition and false identification, said Lt. Steve Costanzo of the La Habra Police Department. Investigators also seized two handguns and one shotgun, Costanzo said.

Four men arrested in one of the largest gang sweeps in Orange County history pleaded guilty Friday to dealing drugs, officials from the Orange County district attorney's office said. Miguel De La Riva Lopez, Robert Gariby, Shane Diaz and Peter Medrano were each charged with one count of selling drugs. None of the four had previous felony convictions or gang affiliation, said Jeff Ferguson of the DA's office. The four were sentenced to probation ranging from six months to a year.