More arrests of youth-powered robbery gang
Five adults, 11 teens held in new wave of violent crimes. Suspects ‘seem to be at war with the general public,’ police say.
SAN JOSE >> In what police on Monday described as a new wave of coordinated attacks, five adults and 11 teens have been arrested in a string of robberies and violent assaults in San Jose, just months after a similar crime bust in January.
The San Jose Police Department’s robbery unit made the arrests in connection with a cluster of crimes, including seven robberies, six carjackings, 10 burglaries, an assault with a deadly weapon, and illegal weapons possession, reported in November and December. The probe ended with six search warrants and a probation search performed Thursday in the city.
The searches led to the arrests of San Jose residents Alexis Anaya, 19; Jessica Bustos, 18; Diego Diaz, 18; Antonio Gutierrez, 18; Anwar Mohammad, 21; and 11 teens ages 15 to 17. The adult suspects were booked at the Santa Clara County jail and the teens were booked at Juvenile Hall, police said.
Diaz and Mohammad were among eight suspects already in custody. On Jan. 10, seven adults and five teens were arrested in connection to a related string of at least 30 robberies and carjackings — many of them armed — in San Jose dating to last spring.
Lt. Paul Joseph, robbery unit commander, said the January arrests yielded information that linked new suspects to known crimes, and previous suspects to new crimes, most if not all associated with the same crew.
“Every time we do one of these (cases), we get so much more information,” Joseph said. “There’s a lot of high-level violence, a lot of firearms being used, there’s people being confronted in their homes or in front of their homes. They’re dangerous folks.”
He added that the suspects often improvised their tactics.
“They’ll carjack a car, drive it down the street, see a guy walking down the street, pull the carjacked car over, jump out and point a gun at him, then take his wallet, then go down the street, maybe get rid of that car, and carjack another car,” he said.
In what appears to be a growing trend, police and city gang experts say the young suspects organize among themselves without operating in traditional street gangs, including a December case involving an alleged 11-year-old getaway driver.
“Instead of being at war with another gang, they seem to be at war with the general public,” Joseph said.
Police added that the recent search warrants led to the seizure of seven firearms — four handguns, a shotgun, and two rifles — and at least one of the guns’ serial number was filed away.
“The potential for someone to be harmed or killed is high,” Joseph said. “We’re hoping that we’re going to make a real dent in the number of robberies and carjackings in San Jose.”
Besides multiple divisions at SJPD, last week’s searches were aided by the Santa Clara County Regional Auto Theft Task Force; Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety; Mountain View Police Department; federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; county Juvenile Probation; and the District Attorney’s Office Crime Strategies Unit.
Anyone with information about the case can contact SJPD robbery Detectives Michael White or Tedros Habib at 408-2774166 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-STOP or svcrimestoppers.org. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.