Law enforcement agencies across five counties launched early-morning raids Wednesday, arresting ten members of Long Beach’s Insane Baby Crips gang for their role in a burglary ring that authorities say netted them more than $250,000 in stolen goods.

At an afternoon press conference, Seal Beach Police Chief Joe Stilanovich said that the gang would target grocery stores and restaurants, stealing high-end alcohol and safes to fund criminal activities. At the supermarkets–which included Ralph’s, Albertsons, Von’s and Food 4 Less–one suspect would fill up a cart with alcohol bottles, then rush out the emergency exit into a getaway car. 

Since early last year, authorities believe there to be 50 instances of these crimes occurred across five counties, with each grab causing at least $5000 in losses for the stores.

“It happened so quick that sometimes they were gone before we even knew what had happened,” said Kroger spokeswoman Kendra Doyel.

The same crime ring, police say, is also responsible for more than 50 break-ins at high-end restaurants, in which safes were stolen. Several of the stolen safes were on display at the press conference along with 1,350 unopened alcohol bottles valued at about $50,000–all confiscated Wednesday from a home in Long Beach and one in Los Angeles. 

Dubbed “Operation Crossover” because of both the multi-county nature of the spree and also the two separate types of crimes that were being committed, the investigation included police departments from Seal Beach, Cypress, Los Alamitos, Long Beach, Westminster, Los Angeles, Torrance, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Downey, La Palma and Signal Hill, along with the Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties’ sherriff’s departments.

The 10 arrested suspects, all described as Insane Baby Crip members, are:

  • David Ball, 38, of Signal Hill
  • Alfred Milliner, 30, of Long Beach
  • Cedric Pitts, 32, of Signal Hill
  • Jeffrey Terry, 31, of Los Angeles
  • Girmay Johnson, 33, of Los Angeles
  • Brian Webb, 32, of Paramount
  • Anthony Boyd, 31, of Los Angeles
  • Robert Forbes, 30, of Long Beach
  • Dominique Lewis, 25, of Long Beach
  • Jimmy Jackson, 33, of Long Beach

Two additional suspects, Myron Hayes, 36, of Long Beach and Dwight Seay, 30, of Hawthorne, remain outstanding.

The burglaries are under investigation. Seal Beach police requested that anyone who has information regarding these and related crimes should contact Detective Mary Martinez at 562-799-4100 ext. 1110 or [email protected].