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KENNEWICK — Dozens of gang-involved fugitives in the Tri-Cities were jailed last week in a large-scale gang sweep dubbed Operation Summer Heat, officials said.
Local, state and federal officers had a list of 93 wanted criminals and worked together to arrest 45 fugitives, including 12 juveniles, during the five-day operation.
"Our commitment to citizens is we're going to keep them safe," said Kennewick Police Chief Ken Hohenberg. "Our commitment to criminals is we're going to continue to hunt them down and put them in jail."
Fugitives also were rounded up in Yakima, Grant, Chelan and Walla Walla counties as part of an expanded gang sweep led by the U.S. Marshals.
Operation Cooperation targeted gangs, violent offenders and fugitives with felony warrants, said U.S. Marshals Chief Deputy Eric Marks.
In all, Operation Cooperation put 162 criminals behind bars, including 13 from Walla Walla, 48 in Yakima Valley and 86 in the Tri-Cities, Marks said.
The results of the two operations were announced Monday at a news conference at the Kennewick police station that included chiefs and sheriffs from Tri-City agencies, Yakima, Sunnyside and the U.S. Marshals.
Yakima County Sheriff Ken Irwin said they also recovered eight stolen vehicles from a chop shop and discovered a marijuana grow operation while serving search warrants for fugitives.
"We communicate up and down the Valley from county to county and it's so valuable to fighting the criminals," Irwin said. "But sometimes you have to just sweep crud off the streets and that's what these operations do."
Agencies share information as they prepare for the special gang sweeps, and the operations highlight the cooperation and focus on stopping gang crimes, but Pasco Police Chief Denis Austin added, "It's a daily operation for our officers in the field."
Benton County sheriff's Capt. Steve Keane said gangs are responsible for a majority of crimes that occur in the community and they intend to put as much pressure on gangs as they can.
And, as the joint operations show, that pressure doesn't stop at the county line. By combining forces with agencies in the Yakima Valley to the west, Walla Walla County to the east and Grant County to the north, criminals are learning they can't just leave one area and set up shop in a neighboring town, officials said.
"If they try to out-run us from Yakima County, they're going to run into law enforcement down here (in the Tri-Cities)," said Sunnyside Police Chief Ed Radder. "There's no safe haven."
Operation Cooperation is the first operation for the newly formed Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, which covers Washington, Oregon and Alaska, Marks said.
More than 80 law enforcement officers from 23 law enforcement agencies targeted fugitives from Wenatchee to the Yakima Valley to Walla Walla and down to Milton-Freewater and made several notable arrests.
"It's not just about the number of arrests, it's about the impact we make in the community," Marks said. "We want to assure the bad guys out there that we're not going away. These types of operations will continue and we will be targeting you."
Likely the biggest capture was in Spokane, where task force agents tracked down a Lewis County man wanted in connection with a triple homicide. John Allen Booth, 31, was arrested Wednesday night in Spokane after a statewide manhunt.
In Kennewick, Noel Gonzalez, 26, was arrested on a vehicular homicide warrant, and Gy Campbell, who was wanted for failing to register as a sex offender for seven years, was caught in Richland.
Campbell, 44, also was featured last week in a Tri-Cities Crime Stoppers wanted bulletin. After several tips from community members, including Herald readers, Campbell's location was passed on to task force agents.
In Grant County, one of the fugitives jailed was Robert Stark, who was wanted for assault after allegedly going to another man's home and beating him with a baseball bat.
Hohenberg said last week's gang sweep, timed to coincide with the Benton Franklin Fair, has been the most successful one they have had in the Tri-Cities so far. It's the fourth one in just over a year and the second one coordinated with Yakima County agencies.
The four gang sweeps have sent 160 gang-involved fugitives in the Tri-Cities to jail.
For Operation Summer Heat, officers started with 63 targets but then increased the list to 93 because of "great intelligence," Hohenberg said. Twelve of the 45 arrests were juvenile fugitives. Dave Wheeler, probation manager for the Benton-Franklin Juvenile Justice Center, said eight of the juveniles with felony warrants had records with a combined 46 prior misdemeanor convictions and four felony convictions.
"These are the pretty high-risk juveniles we're dealing with out there," Wheeler said.
Wheeler said the juvenile court system has many programs intended to keep track of and help kids in the system. It doesn't keep all kids from re-offending, Wheeler said, and once juveniles get involved in gangs, it's often hard to get them out. But probation officers do the best they can and also rely on working closely with law enforcement officers and parents and families to keep kids out of trouble.
In Yakima County, Sheriff Irwin said his agency took advantage of a $500,000 federal grant to start a program called "Building the Bridges," which connects juveniles with former gang members who have turned their lives around.
"It's just awesome," Irwin said. "It's a fantastic program."
Prevention programs like that are key to breaking the gang cycle, but for some criminals it doesn't matter what programs are provided.
"Some people just don't get it," he said. "And we just have to get them off the streets."
Officials reiterated these special operations only highlight what officers do every day on the street and promised they'll continue their joint efforts to put pressure on gangs and violent offenders.
"The public needs to be reassured that law enforcement is out there banging away at the bad guys," Irwin said.
