Following a three-year long probe which began in November of 2009, the Long Beach Police Department—with the help and cooperation of the United State Secret Service, the United States Postal Inspector’s Office, and the Internal Revenue Service—announced the arrest of eleven people involved with the notorious Baby Insane Crips street gang.

The initial operation stemmed from three shooting series—ballistic tests which confirmed they were related to one another—that resulted in 13 individual shootings, including the murder of 19-year-old Frank Castro near Santa Fe Avenue and Arlington Street. That operation resulted in 27 search warrants being served and 16 suspects being taken into custody.

This wave of the operation—with 200 agents focusing on the gang’s involvement in multiple identity theft and tax fraud incidents—had warrants served throughout the Southland including Long Beach, Huntington Beach, Harbor City, Van Nuys, Carson, Inglewood, Gardena, Anaheim, Cerritos and Los Angeles; eight children, on top of the arrests, were also taken into custody after the warrants had been served.

With tens of thousands of dollars in both stolen property and losses to the federal government, with an additional $1 million lost in additional financial fraud incidents, amongst the confiscated items were 10 guns, multiple electronics, multiple cars and a boat worth $50,000.

The eleven arrested individuals—Crystal Armijo, 27, of Long Beach; April Clark, 21, Long Beach; Christina Clark, 23, Long Beach; John Hermidaveh, 48, Long Beach; Lakanda Horn, 40, Carson, Dominique Lewis, 24, Los Angeles; Ebony Mosely, 30, Harbor City; Dejuana Oliver, 22, Long Beach; Lamartin Patterson, 30, Long Beach; Torrence Stokes, 27, Los Angeles; and Edward Winston, 27, Long Beach—were booked for various charges, including identity theft, outstanding warrants, possession of stolen property and the possession of firearms by ex-felons.

“We would like this operation to serve as another strong message to the gangs in the city of Long Beach and throughout the region, that we will not stand for the destruction you bring to our communities, and will do everything within our power to stop the violence and corruption that you inflict upon society,” said Long Beach Chief Jim McDonnell at an afternoon news conference. “We will continue to unite with our law enforcement partners at the local, county, state and federal levels, and utilize every tool available to us to target not only you, but those who conspire with you to victimize members of our community for your personal gain.”