“Operation Supernova” Burns Bright
Ventura County – With law enforcement throughout California’s Central Coast counties ramping up efforts to suppress criminal gang activity, coordination among the FBI, the Ventura Police Department, and the Oxnard Police Department is having the intended effect.
Martin Madigral Cazares
According to Oxnard Assistant Police Chief Jason Benites in remarks to the media on November 20th, the recent arrests of a half-dozen area residents believed to have been actively engaged in illegal drug trafficking on behalf of and at the behest of “the Mexican Mafia prison gang” in what authorities dubbed Operation Supernova is impeding the criminal sale of narcotics throughout the county.
In the pre-dawn hours prior to Benites’ press conference, multiple arrest and search warrants were served on no less than 17 individuals, eight of whom were already sitting in Ventura County Jail with pending court dates. Arrested were: Daniel Armendariz, 38, Pedro Arrieta, 42, Philip Guerra, 28, David Leal, 44, Armando Molina, 30, and Frank Ruiz, 32.
Benites remarked that the impact of these new arrests upon the local organizations reputedly controlled by Mexican Mafia member Martin Madrigal-Cazares, 38, believed by Ventura County prosecutors to be currently held in a Mexico prison and the target of local extradition efforts, amounts to “a torpedo in their engine room.”
At the multi-agency press conference, Oxnard Police Detective Ricky Marquez Jr. remarked that recent efforts at dismantling the Mexican Mafia operations throughout the county have focused upon the “shot callers” of the organization, and that the current arrests of six suspects also brought in a cornucopia of evidence, including 18 pounds of methamphetamine, 11 pounds of cocaine, six pounds of heroin, and no less than 46 firearms.
Photos: Courtesy FBI, Ventura County Jail Booking
Read more:
FBI.GOV: 17 Ventura County gang members linked to Mexican Mafia charged
Vcstar: Police arrest 6 in Ventura County with alleged connections…
ABC7: Oxnard sting targeted drug-trafficking suspects
