Drew Street (Avenues) Gang: bastion torn down

I’ve read off and on about the Avenues gang here in Los Angeles. Another story hit today in the Los Angeles Times today (“Avenues gang bastion is demolished,” Sam Quinones, 5 February 2009). Towards the bottom of the article the LA Times provides a quick summary of the 2008 events surrounding the Avenues gang, specifically the Drew Street gang.

February 2008: A car with Avenues gang members shot and killed a former Cypress Park gang member. The car was followed at a later point by undercover cops to Drew Street. A gun battle erruprted.

April 2008: Maria Leon, leader of the Drew Street gang, is arrested for illegally coming to the US.

June 2008: Police make Avenues gang arrests. It isn’t mentioned in the article, but I believe this occurred both in Los Angeles and Glendale.

December 2008: Arrests made in murder of a sheriff’s deputy.

Here’s portions of the LA Times article: The two-bedroom stucco house at 3304 Drew St. in Glassell Park was once the center of one of the most menacing drug marketplaces in Los Angeles. From the house, Maria "Chata" Leon, an illegal immigrant, her family and associates controlled drug and gang activity on the street for years, police said . . . Known as the Satellite House, for the enormous black satellite dish that once stood in the driveway, the home "was a terrifying monument to the power of the Avenues gang" that dominated the two blocks of Drew Street, said City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo. But all that was history Wednesday morning. As police and city officials looked on, a Caterpillar excavator took a bite out of the roof, then ate its way through the rest of the structure, and a half-hour later the Satellite House was rubble . . . The 12-square-block enclave around Drew Street was among the city's most dangerous for years, police said . . . Some years, the street accounted for up to 20% of the violent crime in the 30-square-mile Northeast Division, police said . . . Still, a stubborn culture of criminality reigned, largely because of a web of families from Tlalchapa, Guerrero, in the Tierra Caliente, a region of Mexico known for its violence.

My take: First off, someone is going to make a movie out of this at some point. It is interesting how long it took the LAPD to make in-roads into reducing the hold this gang has on this particular street. Hopefully, the LAPD can keep a lid on this gang and other gangs throughout Los Angeles. I fear that with our economic recession growing deeper by the minute, the LAPD needs to focus more on this area of crime or it will get out of control.