Sheriff Gregory Ahern Vows To Protect Community From Gangs

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — When federal charges against members of the Nuestra Familia organization were announced last week by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, the agencies that contributed to the investigation were given credit.

Among them was the Alameda County Sheriff's Office.

Sheriff Gregory Ahern told Patch, “It was our duty to work on this investigation and an honor to work with our fellow law enforcement agencies. We will always prevail to keep our communities safe from dangerous gangs and criminal enterprises.”

The indictments and arrests were the culmination of a five-year-long investigation into gang activity in the Bay Area. Federal charges were filed against 55 members of the Nuestra Familia, El Hoyo Palmas and San Jose Grande gangs.

Craig Fair, special agent in charge for the FBI's San Francisco division, said in a news conference Thursday that "Operation Quiet Storm" was one of the largest gang takedowns in the division's history.

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California Stephanie Hinds also concurred that the charges were the most significant action taken against the Nuestra Familia organization in decades.

The specific charges for the various defendants range from federal racketeering to drug trafficking and murder, with particular aim taken at the leadership of the Nuestra Familia prison gang.

"As alleged in the indictment, these seven individuals have for years led a violent and lucrative criminal organization from their prison cells," Hinds said. "By disrupting gang leadership, we take aim at the head of the snake and seek to reduce violence and other criminal activity on our streets and in our jails and prisons."

The investigation was a collaboration of local, state and federal law enforcement, including the FBI, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Fair said arrests were made in Santa Clara, Alameda, Modesto, San Benito, Santa Cruz, Kern, San Francisco, Tulare and Stanislaus counties, with officers seizing bulk cash, dangerous weapons and narcotics.

The Fremont Police Department was the only other East Bay law enforcement agency credited with participating in the investigation. The City of Fremont did not return an email request for comment.