Nearly half of the members or known associates of the “Taliban” street gang arrested in a series of raids on Saturday lived in Menlo Park, or have family here — including the central target, a man who was dealing “massive” amounts of crack cocaine, police say.
After an 18-month FBI investigation that involved police from Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, law enforcement officials carried out simultaneous raids at 7 a.m. Saturday. They involved almost 500 FBI agents and local police in 14 cities. 42 gang members were arrested throughout the investigation, officials reported.
“We think we have effectively dismantled the Taliban,” said East Palo Alto Police Chief Ron Davis.
The “Taliban” gang — no relation to the international religious/political organization — is believed to have been responsible for 12 murders, 30 other violent felonies, and over a hundred other crimes since 2002, according to police and the FBI.
A “large quantity” of Ecstasy pills, cocaine base, codeine and other narcotics were confiscated, plus “evidence related to the manufacturing of narcotics.” Officials also seized numerous large-caliber assault rifles and handguns.
While arresting a Menlo Park man in Fremont, law enforcement officials found reams of U.S. currency, according to Menlo Park Sgt. Eric Cowans. He said they stopped counting at $150,000, but estimated the total could be twice that.
The Taliban gang was “one of the strongest” in East Palo Alto, said Sgt. Cowans — though he was careful to add that the arrests won’t solve local crime issues.
The investigation began about 18 months ago, when Sgt. Cowans began working with an FBI agent, “figuring out a way to break up” the gang. Through several informants and “hundreds and hundreds of hours of surveillance,” an FBI task force that included detectives from Menlo Park and East Palo Alto started tracking down gang members.
Though arrests were made in 14 Bay Area cities, as far south as Gilroy and as far north as San Francisco, nearly all of the gang members were from either East Palo Alto or Menlo Park’s Belle Haven neighborhood, Sgt. Cowans said.
Desean Gardner, 29, the “main target” of the investigation and a major distributor of crack cocaine, grew up on Ivy Drive in Belle Haven, according to police. Mr. Gardner wasn’t apprehended in the initial raid on his home, but turned himself in at the Menlo Park Police Department shortly after 1:30 p.m., East Palo Alto Detective Ed Soares said. Mr. Gardner’s father, brother, and girlfriend were also taken into custody, according to Detective Soares.
Menlo Park residents tend to see gangs as an East Palo Alto issue, but that’s not the case, said Sgt. Cowans.
“It definitely affects both of our communities, without a doubt,” he said. “Between the Belle Haven neighborhood and East Palo Alto, we see basically jurisdictional differences, but the (criminals) are pretty much the same. … Drug dealers and gang members don’t see the lines we see.”
Menlo Park Mayor Heyward Robinson said he views the “Taliban” operation as “organized crime.”
“This is a business to these folks; there’s a lot of money at stake; they were moving drugs and weapons,” said Mr. Robinson. “These guys thought they were immune, untouchable. … They probably thought the police forces they were up against weren’t up to the job to penetrate them, and take them down. And they were wrong.”
Shutting down a major drug operation should have a domino impact on crime across the city, said Sgt. Cowans.
“People look at drugs as victimless crime, but 99.9 percent of all our (crime-related) problems … stem from drugs,” he said. “Especially violent crime. When you can attack the drug aspect of that, it can have a huge impact on street-level type crimes, and also on quality-of-life issues within neighborhoods.”
He said he’s heard from residents who are afraid to let their kids go outside because “next door there’s a guy selling crack.”
While the arrests are likely to lead to a reduction in crime in Belle Haven, it’s “hard to say” what kind of impact they will have on crime in the Willows neighborhood, Sgt. Cowans said — though he did note that the Taliban gang has been linked to several residential property crimes in the area. A drive-by shooting in the Willows in May 2007 sparked several meetings between residents and police.
Most of the 42 gang members apprehended throughout the investigation will be charged in federal court, according to Sgt. Cowans; only “eight or nine” will face local or state charges.
For names of those arrested and news updates, check TheAlmanacOnline.com.
