68 members of San Fernando Valley-based neo-Nazi gang indicted in LA
LOS ANGELES - More than three dozen alleged members of what prosecutors call a San Fernando Valley-based white supremacist gang have been arrested in connection with a federal indictment alleging a years-long criminal operation that included drug trafficking, weapons violations and COVID-19 and loan fraud.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, 29 people named in the indictment were arrested Wednesday in a series of raids involving the Los Angeles Police Department and other agencies. Thirteen other defendants were already in custody, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said the gang has been allied with the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia, and its members use "Nazi tattoos, graffiti and iconography to indicate their violent white supremacy extremist ideology."
A total of 68 defendants are named in the 76-count indictment, which alleges offenses including conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
The gang's "violent white-supremacist ideology and wide-ranging criminal activity pose a grave menace to our community," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement announcing the indictment. "By allegedly engaging in everything from drug-trafficking to firearms offenses to identity theft to COVID fraud, and through their alliance with a neo-Nazi prison gang, the (gang is) a destructive force."
During the investigation, law enforcement seized "large quantities of illegal firearms, and dozens of pounds of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and heroin," according to prosecutors.
The indictment alleges criminal activities dating back to at least December 2016.
The gang allegedly used social media -- including a members-only Facebook group -- to share information and target people who violated the gang's rules.
It alleges gang members generated revenue by trafficking drugs and through robberies, identity-theft schemes and financial fraud.
Authorities are still searching for 26 suspects - now fugitives - on the run.
City News Service contributed to this report.