More than 200 arrested in E.V. gang crackdown

Authorities on Friday announced the arrests of more than 200 people in a three-week roundup targeting violent gang members, concluding an operation that involved several East Valley agencies and included the seizures of $110,000 in cash and property.

Called Operation City Limits, the roundup focused on some of the most violent serial offenders in the area, people who are suspected of stickups, carjackings and assaults.

Seventy-eight street gangs were investigated during the three-week period, and police arrested 86 people who were documented members of the gangs.

The remaining arrests represented a clutch of other suspects police came across in the roundup.

"This is actually a really exciting time for police here in the Valley," Mesa police Chief George Gascón said while announcing the arrests.

Police chiefs and high-ranking officers from numerous local, state and federal agencies were on hand at the Friday morning news conference at Mesa police headquarters. Tempe, Gilbert, Chandler, Salt River and Scottsdale police departments joined the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the state probation department.

Many of them used the occasion to pat one another on the back for the teamwork between neighboring forces.

"As a result (of the roundup), many of the neighborhoods are safer today," said Cmdr. Dan Wells of the state Department of Public Safety. "Today, police agencies really cannot be effective if we do not collaborate and cooperate beyond our jurisdictions."

Gangs no longer abide by city or neighborhood boundaries, authorities said, so police agencies must team up.

Gascón, whose department tracks crime figures by the week, said some of the Mesa neighborhoods targeted in the operation have already seen drops in crime since the last of the sweeps took place last Saturday.

Gascón said it was a prime example of the effectiveness of targeting a specific, violent group and going after it, adding: "This was not simply about sweeping through the area and picking anybody up."