The members of a Mexican gang recently discovered operating in Thousand Oaks did not dress or act the part in public, allowing their criminal affiliation to go undetected for years by those who knew them, including their employers, police say.
During a raid on one of the alleged gang member's homes, an Employee of the Month award was discovered.
"When we would go to their places of employment, nobody would ever guess that this was a gang member," said Dep. Geno Martinez, a member of the Thousand Oaks Police Department's Special Enforcement Gang Unit. "Every employer that I talked to was really surprised that we were looking for these people (saying), 'Oh my God, he's one of my best employees.'"
Last week the TOPD announced it had arrested several members of a criminal organization that originated in Yucatan, Mexico, for allegedly attacking two men in June with baseball bats after a confrontation inside a Thousand Oaks nightclub.
Police learned of the gang's existence from the victims of the attack, who are associates of a longstanding Thousand Oaks gang. The two men told police that at least one of their assailants yelled the name of the Yucatan gang when attacking them.
Besides being model employees, the Yucatan gang members were atypical in other ways, said Dep. Dillan Alvarez.
Many of the 25 identified as members by TOPD were in their late 20s and early 30s, much older than most local gang members. Alvarez said it's unusual to see a 27-year-old gang member on the street because most are in prison or deceased before they reach that age.
Another distinguishing factor is that Yucatan gang members have little or no criminal history and no prison record, Alvarez said. That's because the robberies they are suspected of commiting are against illegal immigrants who are too afraid to turn to the police.
"They stayed under the radar for a long time because they didn't really go out and do stupid things with people," said Sgt. Mark Gillette, head of the gang unit.
Members of the gang tend to be illegal immigrants from Mexico who may have a wife and children living with them in Thousand Oaks, Alvarez said. And unlike longstanding, violent criminal gangs, the Yucatan group doesn't recruit members.
Their numbers grow when a native from their hometown in Yucatan moves into the area.
After the June attack, special enforcement officers learned law enforcement unknowingly encountered Yucatan gang members in a 2003 traffic stop.
"We saw the tattoos and had no idea what they meant," said Alvarez, who would not reveal the gang's distinctive insignia.
Martinez said one Yucatan gang member has lived in T.O. for 15 years.
As a result of the June attack, special enforcement officers also uncovered answers to an unsolved crime in Moorpark in January.
Caught on tape were two men assaulting another man inside a restaurant. One of the suspects pointed a gun, but although employees called police, the victim never reported the crime. TOPD say they've identified one of the men involved in the attack as a member of the Yucatan gang.
Gang outlook
Members of the special unit told the Acorn that gang membership in Thousand Oaks has been on the decline since the 1990s. Only one member of the city's first identified criminal gang—classified as such in the 1980s—is not currently incarcerated, Gillette said.
"We do not have a lot of gang activity; we really don't," Gillette said. "Most of it is isolated incidents . . . and they're usually gang versus gang."
But officers said the Yucatan gang, although relatively inexpe- rienced, was on its way to gaining notoriety. With the July baseball bat attack on Rimrock Road, the gang had graduated from commit- ting property crimes to violent acts against people. At least one of the five Yucatan gang member s arrested for the crime was out to "make a name" for himself, Gillette said.
"He's trying to set the standard for this gang against all the other city gangs," Gillette said. "He's going to take his gang and show the other gangs who's the boss, until he ran into our unit."
Mar- tinez said the gang members that night "were goi ng to do whatever they could" to put themselves on the map.
"I think if we didn't stop them here . . . we would probably have had a homicide shortly after," he said.
"There's no question in my mind," Alvarez shot back. "And I know that's a big statement, but the pattern was building up."
During the investigation, Martinez said, they found threatening correspondence police think took place between the Yucatan gang and another T.O. gang shortly after the Moorpark restaurant incident.
"So it was heating up, we think," Martinez said.
Alvarez said it's important to note that not everyone from Muna—the town in the Yucatan where the gang hails from—is a criminal. T.O. is home to a large population of Muna natives who are law-abiding, hard-working and productive citizens.
"This was a small minority of people from Muna that were causing trouble," Alvarez said.
Gillette would not divulge numbers but said gang membership is down due in part to a visible police presence and good rapport between the department and the community.
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