San Diego County police added up to one hundred new prisoners to their jail yesterday in a massive, citywide gang and gang sweep. The five month long investigation, dubbed “Operation Red Sky,” involved a number of crimes from drug trafficking to pimping to murder and resulted in the arrest of 93 people, the majority of whom are known gang members. Many of the arrestees are top-leaders in the Skyline Gang.
Aside from the arrests, officers also confiscated 19 guns, 240 cannabis plants, 10 pounds of marijuana, 20 pounds of cocaine, two pounds of meth, 18 vials of PCP, 3000 tablets of ecstasy and around $60,000 in cash.
Authorities have said this is the sixth such raid on gangs this year and the effect has been a 40% reduction of gang-related crime in the city.
According to SDPD Chief William Lansdowne, “in the last five years, we’ve moved from (being) the ninth-safest city to the sixth-safest city in America.”
Criminal law specialists seem to agree the chances of all of the 93 arrestees being indicted and convicted of a specific crime based on the available evidence is slim, but the gang leaders will likely be put behind bars for a very long time without an exceptionally skilled San Diego criminal attorney.
To learn more about the busts, read the article on San Diego 6. Image Via Scragz [Flickr]
With the recession in full swing, a growing number of people have been finding themselves in desperate situations. As a result, many of these ordinary people have been turning to crimes they never would have imagined performing only a few years ago. One example of this phenomenon is the increasing number of people in Texas who have turned to 
Even as the state considers legalizing marijuana in an effort to increase tax revenues, the San Diego police have sent out a strong message that illegal drug-related activities will not be tolerated in the meantime. Last week, fourteen marijuana dispensaries were raided. A total of thirty one people were arrested, $700,000 in cash was seized, as well as six guns.
Arrest rates for all crimes have dropped 40% since 1990. Unfortunately, despite our state’s seemingly more liberal attitudes towards marijuana use, evidenced by medicinal marijuana legalization and discussion of complete legalization of the drug, arrests for marijuana possession have skyrocketed 127% since 1990.