City targets gang ‘base’
Canoga Park home is a hub for white supremacist criminal group, lawsuit alleges.
The Los Angeles city attorney’s office has filed a lawsuit against the owner of a Canoga Park home, claiming the residence is a hub of white supremacist gang members and drug activity.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, claims that the singlefamily home in the 8400 block of Remmet Avenue has for years been “a known location for narcotics, gang and general nuisance activity.”
In the last 12 months, court documents claim, authorities have served four search warrants on the property and arrested more than a dozen people. Photos from inside the property attached to the court filing show opened paint cans filled with hypodermic needles, a coffee table covered in drug paraphernalia — such as glass pipes and plastic baggies — and broken-down vehicles on the front lawn.
The home is within half a mile of a police station, park and elementary school.
The most recent warrant served there was on Aug. 3, when the homeowner’s daughter, Lisa Bellinaso, was arrested on suspicion of hooking up power to the home illegally, officials said. She and her boyfriend have been arrested at the home numerous times for drug-related crimes, including possessing heroin with the intent to sell, the city attorney’s office said.
Bellinaso did not return a request for comment.
The home is a haven for members of the infamous Aryan Brotherhood gang and a smaller gang with ties to it in the San Fernando Valley, the lawsuit claims.
“As the tragic events in Charlottesville remind us, racism, hatred and white supremacy are all too prevalent in today’s America,” said City Atty. Mike Feuer in a statement. “This is the third lawsuit in less than a year my office has filed against property owners we contend provide bases of operations for alleged white supremacist gangs. No one should have to put up with conditions like these in their community. We’re fighting to make this neighborhood safer.”
The lawsuit requests a judge to evict the home’s tenants, take ownership of the property for a year and rehabilitate it with fencing and other safety measures.