A showdown with drug gangs

A dilapidated, trash-strewn house just a block from Linda Elementary School was one of 45 targets Thursday as state and local law enforcement officers arrested gang members involved in drug trafficking.

The house at the dead end of Sunrise Avenue, parts of it knee-deep in junk, was being used as a hangout by Norteños gang members, said Joe Barker, a member of the Yuba-Sutter Narcotic Enforcement Team, or NET-5, the lead agency in Operation Showdown.

A suspect, Frankie Sauceda, was arrested at the house on suspicion of drug sales.

More than 100 officers from 14 agencies participated in the operation, which began in August with undercover officers buying small quantities of drugs and guns from gang members, said NET-5 Commander Mike Hudson.

Starting at 7 a.m. Thursday, officers set out with 33 arrest warrants and 12 search warrants. Bleary-eyed suspects were brought either to the Veterans Memorial Center in Yuba City or to the Yuba County Jail.

The warrants resulted in 33 arrests on various charges, all without incident. Of eight warrants that could not be served, one was for a "high-ranking" suspect still at large, said Hudson.

Almost six pounds of meth and more than $100,000 in cash were seized Monday in preliminary busts that included the arrest of Saul Cuevas, a Marysville resident believed to be a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.

During the preceding three months of Operation Showdown, undercover officers made more than 50 drug buys and five gun buys from 42 people. The evidence included methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana and eight guns, including two assault rifles, said Hudson.

Besides the methamphetamine seized Monday, 40 pounds of marijuana was seized during the three-month period.

"NET-5 identified several family members operating together in the distribution of methamphetamine, including a father-daughter team, a mother-son-daughter team and a father-son team," Hudson said.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, whose Department of Justice officers were instrumental in the raids, said he will do everything possible to help local police and sheriffs quell escalating gang activity.

"Tragically, gang activity is deeply embedded in many communities and is spreading throughout rural California," Brown said.

Hudson said cooperation between the new Sutter County Gang Task Force and the Yuba County Sheriff's Department Gang Unit was vital to the operation.

Also participating were the Sutter County Sheriff's Department, Yuba City Police Department, Marysville Police Department, Sutter County Probation Department, district attorney offices in Sutter and Yuba counties, the California Highway Patrol, the state Department of Corrections, the Colusa County Narcotic Enforcement Team and Immigration Customs Enforcement.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter Rob Young at 749-4710 or at ryoung@appealdemocrat.com.