10 Arrested in Gang Crackdown : Law enforcement: The raid may be the largest operation yet in the county’s widening war against members.

Ten suspected gang members have been rounded up in what is being called the largest crackdown on gangs in Ventura County, sheriff’s officials said Thursday.

Five of the arrests, made in connection with an April 27 drive-by shooting, came as 50 officers staged an early-morning raid Thursday.

The suspects, all between the ages of 17 and 23, are members of the Small Town Hoods, a street gang suspected in a series of drive-by shootings in Thousand Oaks, authorities said.

In addition to arresting gang members on suspicion of conspiracy to commit an assault with a deadly weapon, authorities seized weapons--including rifles, shotguns and knives--and gang paraphernalia, such as spray-paint cans and articles of clothing.

They also confiscated newspaper clippings containing accounts of graffiti writing and shootings believed to have been committed by the Small Town Hoods.

The items will be used to prosecute the suspects, Lt. Richard Diaz said.

Diaz said the name “S.T.H.”--shorthand for Small Town Hoods--was yelled by three carloads of gang members after five rounds of a small-caliber weapon were fired at a home on Greenwich Drive on April 27. No one was injured in the attack.

The well-organized raid, dubbed Operation Gang Busters, was over in less than 11 minutes, Diaz said. The only show of force occurred at a house on Calle Mimosa, where deputies kicked in a door to take a gang member into custody.

About 50 officers from the Sheriff’s Department, the district attorney’s office and the Ventura Police Department helped make the arrests.

Sheriff John Gillespie said it was the largest single raid conducted against gang members in any of the five Ventura County cities for which his department provides law enforcement.

“We’ve had major raids for narcotics which have netted gang members,” Gillespie said. “But to my knowledge, this is the largest and most successful raid on gangs for gang purposes--and it may not be the last.”

Officials in Oxnard, Ventura and Santa Paula confirmed that they have not conducted raids on that scale.

Search warrants were issued Wednesday after criminal indictments were handed down by the Ventura County grand jury.

Gillespie said the crackdown was necessary because of increased gang violence in Thousand Oaks, an area touted as one of the safest cities of its size in the United States.

Members of the Small Town Hoods are also accused of the May 31 drive-by slaying of Jennifer Jordan, a 20-year-old mother struck by a bullet fired at members of a rival gang, the Houston Hoods.

Thousand Oaks Mayor Frank Schillo, who accompanied sheriff’s deputies on the raid, said he hopes the arrests will send a strong message to gangs. At some homes, he spoke to curious neighbors about the need for eradicating gangs.

“We’re cleaning up this mess and sending a message to wanna-bes: If you want to be jailed on a conspiracy charge, just join a gang,” Schillo said.

The suspects arrested Thursday morning were Adolfo A. Alvarez, 18; George C. Avina, 18, and Joseph A. Cruz, 23, all of Thousand Oaks; and Wade S. Caddin, 19, of Newbury Park. In Ventura, police arrested John M. Pinkham, 21, of Ventura.

Five others had been picked up on arrest warrants before Thursday’s raid. They were Nickolas C. Pupich, 20, of Oxnard; Scott M. Kastan, 18, of La Jolla; Tam Nguyen, 19, of Newbury Park; Marc Dean, 22, of Thousand Oaks, and a 17-year-old Newbury Park youth whose name was not released because of his age. Police are still seeking Aaron Jensen, whom they described as a transient.

The suspects are scheduled to be arraigned at 8:30 a.m. today on charges of conspiracy to commit assault with a deadly weapon. All except Avina were booked into County Jail on $5,000 bail. Avina’s bail was set at $15,000.

Cruz and Pinkham were released after posting bail.

Sheriff’s Detective Ernie Montagna said investigators were able to piece together enough information to link all the suspects to the same crime and noted that the arrestees come from middle-class neighborhoods.

Two of those arrested are also suspects in other gang-related shootings in Thousand Oaks. Avina has been charged in the Jan. 7 shooting of Raul Caceres, and his trial is pending. Kastan is awaiting trial in the death of Jordan.

News of the arrests drew praise from her father, Charles Jordan.

“I hope this scares other kids into getting out of gangs,” he said.

A mother who witnessed deputies raiding her condominium complex was surprised to discover they had come to arrest her neighbor, Caddin, a Moorpark College student.

“I’ve seen gangs starting to hang out in the Conejo Valley, but I didn’t realize it was him,” Kathleen Faraci said. “I’m really surprised.”