The Department of Homeland Security led a seven-agency raid Tuesday that disrupted Armenian gang activity in Los Angeles.
Thirteen members of two “dueling” gangs, the “Amiryan Organized Crime Group” and “Artuni Enterprise,” were arrested in the pre-dawn raid, according to Fox News. Twelve arrests were made in California and one in Florida.
Charges against those arrested included attempted murder, kidnapping, and fraud. Court documents said one operation chalked up to the gangs stole $83 million in items from Amazon.
“What you’re seeing now is part of the [Trump] administration’s priorities,” Bill Essayli, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, said. “We’re going after transnational criminal organizations, violent and organized crime, going out into the community and getting the most dangerous folks out of here.”
“This has been going on for years,” Essayli said. “This particular gang, these Armenian gangs here, have been terrorizing the community.”
Officials said the gangs were led by Armenians, but included suspects from Iran and Azerbaijan. Authorities believe the gangs have links to the Mexican mafia.
Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch, California, is charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering, while a rival, Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood, California, who is charged with kidnapping, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said, according to an ICE news release.
The release said that “Armenian Organized Crime, a Russian mafia-affiliated transnational criminal organization, has made Los Angeles County a center of U.S. operations.”
Do you think Trump is doing a good job cracking down on crime?
About $100,000 in cash, three armored vehicles, and 14 guns were seized in the Tuesday raid.
The ICE release said Artuni Enterprise members were accused of signing up with Amazon as carriers and taking what they were hauling.
The gang also ran a credit card scheme in which a phone business would run up credit card debt, then fold before any of it could be collected.
“Today’s arrests reflect that my office and our law enforcement partners are committed to keeping America safe by dismantling transnational criminal organizations,” Essayli said.
“Let today’s enforcement action be a warning to criminals: Our communities are not your playground to engage in violence and thuggery,” he said.
“This transnational criminal organization operated with the structure and brutality of an international cartel, inflicting significant harm on public safety and causing substantial damage to legitimate commerce and supply chains,” Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles Acting Deputy Special Agent in Charge Dwayne Angebrandt said, according to KNBC-TV.
“Dismantling transnational criminal organizations is at the core of HSI’s mission, and through close collaboration with our law enforcement partners, we are holding these perpetrators accountable and disrupting their criminal enterprise at every level,” he said.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
