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Nice work: FBI, LAPD move to gut gang menace

Accused gang leaders with nicknames like Moms, Tito, Toro, and Dreamer have been swept from LA streets.

Residents near MacArthur Park can sleep more soundly because of it.

Kudos to the FBI and LAPD for a series of raids that nabbed top brass of the 18th Street Gang — among the most vicious in Los Angeles.

The raids, spanning Tuesday through Thursday, brought 12 arrests along with 175 pounds of meth and fentanyl, six guns, and $80,000 in cash.

The crackdown followed a years-long investigation into 18th Street, the largest gang in the city and a top purveyor of meth and fentanyl in MacArthur Park, Skid Row and beyond.

The goal of Operation Dead Horse: to behead a gang that boasts tens of thousands of members worldwide — and has allied with former rival MS-13 to forge a behemoth “super gang.”

“LA has become a center for the transport and distribution of narcotics across the country and internationally,” said Capt. Ahmad Zarekani, head of the LAPD Gang and Narcotics Division.

The arrests, he said, are “a significant blow, because now what they need to do is to restructure their leadership. It’s going to take time to recoup from it. But I’m sure they’re going to try to rebuild and combat that. To what capacity, I don’t know that right now.”

He added: “We’re not done with this thing. Federal indictments usually end up in superseding indictments. So I would say, keep your ears open, because there’s more news regarding this gang coming down the pike.”

This is good, important work by LAPD and the Trump administration.

Organized gangs have long tormented Los Angeles through violence, mayhem, drug crime, and extortion; they send fear and blood and peril coursing through innocent neighborhoods.

18th Street also controls MacArthur Park, a now decrepit but once prized public space. The California Post has led reporting on the park, which has become “LA’s fentanyl Ground Zero — a collapsing, chaos-soaked war zone.”

By jailing key 18th Street leaders, prosecutors see hope for the filthy, beleaguered park — and the residents around it.

“This is one of the most violent gangs we have in Los Angeles and their reach is very far, so taking out their leadership, we’re hoping to solve a lot of those problems,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jena McCabe.

The good people of Los Angeles hope you do, too.

Thank you to our law enforcement friends for these tangible steps toward a safer LA.

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