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blow State officials said Operation Red Zone began last summer when BNE agents discovered that members of the gang were "effectively driven out of Salinas in earlier sweeps." "They spread themselves out so they're not all in one spot," said BNE spokeswoman Michelle Gregory. But the state agents who had holed up for months in a Salinas surveillance house "didn't just pack up and leave," Gregory said. "They followed them." The gang members fleeing Salinas after last year's takedowns were mostly street-level traffickers, she Advertisementsaid. Since then, they have been trafficking drugs in Madera, Los Banos, Livingston, Merced, Atwater and the tiny town of Dos Palos, under the oversight of Nuestra Familia leadership, according to Harris' office.


The state narcotics bureau has worked hand-in-hand with local police agencies in at least five other Nuestra Familia regiment takedowns since April 2010, when wiretap and video surveillance for Operation Knockout revealed a web of leads and relationships. That investigation was followed in June by Operation Tapout, with more arrests in Fresno, Kings, Kern and Tulare counties, and then August's Operation Street Sweeper in Visalia, Delano, Salinas and Watsonville. Seven high-level defendants, including two former Salinas regiment commanders — Martin "Cyclone" Montoya and Philip Sparks — as well as other Salinas and Watsonville gang members still face federal drug conspiracy charges in connection with those cases. U.S. Attorney Ben Wagner said at least eight defendants charged in his Eastern District are already serving sentences ranging from 18 to 40 years. "Some of the intel that was gathered (in Salinas) was a big learning tool for all of us," Villegas said. "I think that's why they're having success with these other big operations."

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