Police make gang arrest

A 20-year-old gang member was arrested Thursday after a compliance search of his Tujunga home yielded a Taser, which violates his probation.

Alejandro Cisneros was taken into custody at his home on Samoa Avenue in Tujunga on suspicion of violating terms of his post-release community supervision, which forbids him from having any weapons, including a Taser, said Glendale Police Det. Jeffrey Davis.

“He’s about the business,” Davis said, adding that Cisneros was convicted of transporting drugs while in jail on another charge.

But crimes involving people tied to the Glendale-based gang, Toonerville, have dropped significantly since a 2009 injunction — which prohibits those listed in the order, including Cisneros, from associating with each other and engaging in gang-related activities — was imposed in an area that includes South Glendale, officials said.

Cisneros, who has the gang’s name tattooed on his chest, was recently released from prison after serving a sentence for possessing a weapon, said police officials, who travel outside Glendale to track down gang members with ties to the city.

The gang claims Glendale, northeast Los Angeles and Tujunga as its territory.

Despite the drop-off in recent Toonerville activity, Glendale police say they continue to tap the injunction to curb the gang’s movement.

“It’s a valuable tool,” Davis said of the injunction.

Offenses involving Toonerville gang members in Tujunga have also dipped since the court order, said Det. John Weiler of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division.

“It’s definitely decreased because we were able to arrest a lot of people” as a result of the injunction, he said.

While police officers have seen some gang activity in the area, Weiler said it’s not out of ordinary.

On Thursday, an apartment building next to Cisneros’ home was sprayed with Toonerville graffiti.

Glendale police on Thursday also had planned to serve another alleged gang member with the court order, which forbids those listed in the injunction from going to Glendale’s Palmer Park and Chevy Chase Park just across the Los Angeles border.

The injunction also forbids the alleged gang members from hanging out with other members of the same gang, having weapons and graffiti tools in public view, using lookouts, selling or possessing drugs, trespassing, loitering and intimidating people who live and work within the so-called Los Angeles River-Glendale safety zone.

Those named in the injunction must also obey a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily curfew.

Violating the order is a misdemeanor, and can fetch up to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.

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[Editor’s note: This story has been changed from its original version.]