Idaho Press-Tribune • SUNDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2010 C MY K

idahopress.comMAIN 11

special report

By Sharon Strausssstrauss@idahopress.com

CANYON COUNTY — The number of gang members booted out of Idaho is up and the frequency of drive-by shootings and other overt violent gang-related criminal activity in Canyon County has fallen sharply four years after local communities came together to address the problem.

Mayors, commissioners, police commanders and prosecutors from Ada and Canyon counties showed the Treasure Valley what cooperation can accomplish when they organized a campaign several years ago as gang vio-lence peaked. Those officials took part in the Treasure Valley Partnership — a group of local city and county leaders concerned about the changes in their commu-nities since the rapid growth of the 1990s. The group sought to take the streets back from the gangs and bring a sense of security back to the community.

What came out of the meetings was an innovative program called the Special Assistant United States Attor-ney project.

The idea: Federal attorneys from Boise work closely with community law enforcement to prosecute gang-re-lated crime. The convicted gang members are sent out of state to serve tough prison sentences in federal facilities, not state prisons, cutting off ties to their local affiliates.

The result: Gang-related crime trends are reversing and an estimated $8.3 million of state tax payer dollars has been saved in prison housing costs. And in terms of gang violence, Caldwell and Nampa now are not the same places they were a few years ago.

“Violent gang crime is reducing significantly,” Trea-sure Valley Partnership executive director Bill Larsen said. “Obviously law enforcement has the big hammer now with the federal prosecution.”

Anti-gang crackdown exceeds expectationsMore than 100 Treasure Valley street criminals sent out of Idaho through innovative partnership

Photos by Mike Vogt/IPT

Above, below: Investigators bring out evidence from a house in the 1600 block of Everett St. where a man was arrested in December 2007.

Special successSince the Special Assistant U.S.

Attorney program launched in Feb-ruary 2007 in the Treasure Valley:n 143 indictments (official

charges) have been issued against gang members suspected of violent crimes.n Of those 143 defendants

indicted, 90 percent have been convicted .n 110 individuals have been

sentenced to federal prison.n Those defendants serve an

average of 44.3 months (more than 3 1/2 years) when prosecuted by a special U.S. attorney.

Headline-making SAUSA convictions in 2010 included:n Luckybill Nugent — 27, of Boise was sentenced Nov. 18 to 144

months (12 years) in federal prison for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, and five years of supervised release following his prison term. He was arrested in Boise on July 9, 2009, after officers discovered 344 grams of methamphetamine in his vehicle during a traffic stop. Nugent admitted to officers that he intended to distribute the meth.

n Juan Jose Gomez-Regin, 33, of Meridian, and four other defen-dants from Caldwell and Nampa were sentenced in May for participating in a methamphetamine trafficking ring. Gomez-Regin was sentenced to

144 months (12 years) in federal prison. Miguel Angel Hernan-dez-Flores, 33, of Nampa, was sentenced to 85 months (7 years); Francisco Garcia-Basulto, 27, of Caldwell, received 63 months (more than 5 years) Juan Luis Hernandez-Flores, 34, of Nampa, was sentenced to 46 months (nearly 4 years) and Marisol Beverly Sanchez, 24, of Caldwell, got 36 months (3 years).

n Alfredo Ybarra, 47, of Nampa, received 195 months (more than 16 years) in federal prison for possession of methamphet-amine with intent to distribute, and for possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, in April. He also must serve five years of supervised release after completing the prison term. Ybarra admitted to possessing 237 grams of methamphetamine, a

loaded Berreta .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun, and more than $10,000 in cash in his vehicle, which were discovered during a traffic stop in downtown Boise on Aug. 10, 2009.

n Julian Jose Garza, 28, of Notus and a member of a gang in Caldwell, received a 70-month (nearly 6 year) sentence to federal prison for unlawful possession of a firearm in February. He also must serve three years of supervised release after he completes his prison term. Garza admitted to possessing a 9mm semi-automatic handgun during a confrontation with two men in Caldwell in May 2008. Garza had been previously

convicted of discharge of a firearm into an occupied dwelling in Caldwell, and was prohibited from possessing firearms under federal law.

Canyon County crime nexus

Here is a list of sentenced defendants prosecuted by the gang Special Assistant U.S. Attorney. Not all of the defendants are gang members. The list shows where the underlying offense was committed. Many originated in Canyon County.

Noe Aleman-Ramos, CaldwellEddie Alfaro, CaldwellPaul Almarez, Caldwell Anthony Austin, BoiseFrancisco Javier Basulto, NampaClinton Bays Jr., BoiseAnthony Bernal, Owyhee CountyRichard Bloxham, BoiseJoshua Boyer, BoiseMarlow Campos, BoisePaul Cano, Owyhee CountyStephen Carlson, Twin FallsAlonzo Juarez Caro, Caldwell Jose Carrillo Jr., Nampa

Jose Cartagena-Reyes, Caldwell Noe Castillo, HaileySergio Chavez-Cruz, Caldwell Alberto Chavez-Vasquez, JeromeSergio Colin-Martinez, CaldwellJesus Delgado-Castillo, CaldwellAlfredo Esparza Sr., Caldwell Lucio Esparza, Caldwell Kirkley Evans, BoiseJerry Ferreira, PayetteArturo Flores, BoiseSteven Gallinger, Caldwell Armando Garcia Jr., CaldwellSammy Garcia Jr., FruitlandJose Angel Garcia-Alvarez, Caldwell Victor Garcia-Orozco, Caldwell Gabriel Garza, NotusJulian Jose Garza, Caldwell Michael Goddard, Horseshoe BendJuan Jose Gomez-Dominguez, NampaJose Gomez-Gaona, Caldwell Ernesto Gomez-Vargas, CaldwellLinda Green, NampaRey Gutierrez-Hernandez, Caldwell

Ramiro Hernandez-Carmona, CaldwellJuan Luis Hernandez-Flores, NampaMiguel Angel Hernandez-Flores, NampaPanther Herrera, CaldwellStephanie Hofman, CaldwellJoshua Cabe Holman, Twin FallsJames Hood, BoiseBrandon Hoodenpyle, BoiseDusty Knight, NampaMarcus Koepnick, Twin FallsHolly Koyle, HaileyVictor Landeros-Villa, Boise CountyMatthew Lantz, BoiseEric James Larrea, CaldwellJoshua Larrea, Owyhee County Floyd Lay, WilderAgustin M. Lazo, HaileyTobias Leary, BoiseDaniel Lopez, BoiseSean Manees, BoiseJose Martinez-Aguilar, BoiseRay Martinez, NampaJesse Massey, BoiseRock Mendoza, Caldwell

Jeremy Miller, Twin FallsDaniel Gene Montgomery, BoiseJamaica Musquiz, CaldwellLouis Nickel, Middleton Shawn Norris, Caldwell Luckybill Nugent, BoiseMichael Nugent, BoiseFrank O’Leary, CaldwellChristopher Ohlsson, NampaDavid Oliver, WeiserJuan Carlos Ortiz, NampaYesenia Ortiz, NampaDaniel Paz, NampaEverett Peone, BoiseCassandra Perez, NampaTrino Perez-Sanchez, NampaGaynell Pickinpaugh, BoiseJeffery Pound, Twin FallsJuan Quiroz-Taffola, GoodingAlex Ramirez, CaldwellRick Pacheco Ramirez, Nampa Chelsea Robbins-Gonzalez, Caldwell Noel Rodriguez, CaldwellForest Saba, Caldwell

Leeroy Salazar, CaldwellLuis Salgado-Ibarra, NampaJohn Anthony Sanchez, BoiseMarisol Beverly Sanchez, Caldwell Sophia Sanchez, CaldwellSaul Omar Sanchez-Delgado, CaldwellCody Allen Sandifer, Caldwell Mario Sinforiano-Aguilar, CaldwellRafael Soto, BuhlEric Paul Strong, Twin Falls Ryan Stuard, Boise Cesar Tellez-Castro, Caldwell Christopher Torres, CaldwellMario Trochez-Nunez, Boise Oscar Verdugo-Ortiz, Twin FallsJulian Vieyra-Morelos, CaldwellSergio Villareal, CaldwellAdrian Villasenor, CaldwellSaul Villasenor-Rangel, Caldwell Jeremy Whitten, BoiseAlfredo Ybarra, BoiseOmar Zamudio, NampaElyze Zuniga, NampaJesus Zuniga, Nampa

Snapshot: Caldwell Gang violence in Canyon County reached stunning levels in the middle of the past de-

cade. “August of 2004 was probably the peak of gang violence in Caldwell. We had over 100

confirmed reports of gunfire. That includes shots fired into the air and confirmed cases of property or people being hit,” Caldwell Police Street Crimes Unit Sgt. Joey Hoadley said.

Reports of gang-related shots fired calls in Caldwell since then have dwindled drastically:

“There was a spike in shootings in 2006, however, our patrol officers, detectives and Street Crimes Unit investigators worked diligently on those cases and sent many high-ranking gang members to prison for their involvement,” Hoadley said.

Since October 2004, Caldwell street crimes officers have taken 110 guns off of the streets — and they aren’t your average firearms.

“These are stolen guns or guns possessed by violent gang members,” Hoadley said.Caldwell street crimes officers work with a Special Assistant U.S. District Attorney dedi-

cated to taking violent gang-related cases to federal court, resulting in time served out of state, saving tax-payer dollars and cutting ties with local gang affiliates.

2004 — 100+

2005 — 27

2006 — 73

2007 — 18

2008 — 5

2009 — 2

2010 — 1

Julian Jose Garza

IPT file photo

Officers display examples of various guns used by gang members in Canyon County.