Kennedy: Big gang bust a good start

LYNN – The recent arrest of 37 street gang members – including many Crips and Bloods from Lynn – should leave neighbors feeling safer, says Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy.”The police did a remarkable job,” Kennedy said Monday of the raid in Lynn and Lowell by FBI agents, state troopers and local police from both cities. “There was a tremendous amount of cooperation. Clearly the people living in the neighborhoods that were targeted are breathing easier now.”In addition to crack, cocaine, heroin, marijuana and cash presumably gleaned from illicit drug sales, police seized 34 high-powered firearms, including automatic weapons like the Mac-11, an AR-15 assault rifle, two Tech-9 submachine guns, two SKS rifles and a pair of sawed-off shotguns.The arrests undoubtedly hurt street gang leadership in Lynn, but may not prove a death blow, said the mayor, adding, “It’s a percentage. It doesn’t represent the entire criminal population of Lynn, but it’s a good start.”Several local addresses surfaced in federal court documents as related to gang activities involving the Bloods and Crips, including 13-1/2 Lowell St., owned by Melody Sun.According to an affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Jeffrey E. Wood, the Ward 6 address “has been a Bloods gang house since 2000, when a Bloods gang member was murdered outside by three Crips.”The property was described by law enforcement authorities as a place where heroin was routinely stashed and sold. Wood’s affidavit noted that the Bloods and Crips have been at war in Lynn for a decade.”During the weekend of June 2008, for example, there were seven shootings between the Bloods and the Crips in a span of eight hours,” Wood wrote.Another Ward 6 address, 42 Vine St., owned by Mose and Minnie Brown of Peabody, was listed in the same affidavit as the place where in June 2009, three Molotov cocktails were tossed at the home of Chrisna “Crazy” Chuon, a member of the Bloods. The homemade bombs started small fires in the three-story, six-unit apartment building.The property at 40 Neptune St., owned by a real estate trust with Donna and Conrad Rousseau III as trustees, was known as Bloods territory. It was mentioned in the affidavit as the location where weapons were discarded following a police foot chase.”I talked to a couple of people who are very happy with what went on with that raid. It was an excellent bust,” said Ward 6 Councilor Peter Capano, recalling the fear factor among residents in neighborhoods plagued by gang warfare.Capano said only six residents attended his first community meeting on gang activities in 2008, but after a spate of shootings that year, 63 turned up for the next.”People are afraid around there,” he said. “The houses in the area of Lowell Street and the Neptune Street area are close together. Everyone down there lives side-by-side, and there are some real nice people who live there. I know they feel better now that some of the gang members have been arrested.”Capano credited Straight Ahead Ministries for work done with the city’s street gang members.”That kind of stuff can’t be measured,” he said. “If something doesn’t happen, how do you know it would have otherwise? But the summer of 2010 was a lot better than 2009. So I’m hopeful we are on the right track and that this is going to last awhile. The feds are involved and it’s going to be harder for these kids who went away, far away, to keep in touch with their homies.”The properties at and around 83 and 85 Sheridan St., both owned by Lloyd S. Valente of Peabody, were also infested by Asian Crips gang members. Residents of that Ward 2 neighborhood told investigators the occupants of those Sheridan Street addresses were seen wearing or carrying blue bandanas, blue hats and light blue sneakers – all Crips colors. The neighbors in summer 2009 reported illegal drug sales and drive-by shootings.