Crime & Safety

5 Carlsbad Gang Members Arrested

Carlsbad Police SWAT team and other agencies served a total of seven search warrants on Tuesday after investigating gang activity for months.

Updated Tuesday at 3:45 p.m.

Five documented gang members, including an ex-con and three 17-year-olds, were behind bars Tuesday on suspicion of carrying out a seven-month series of assaults and commercial burglaries in downtown Carlsbad.

Arrested Monday evening and Tuesday morning during searches of a half-dozen North County homes were Matthew Guadarrama, 19, parolee Abraham Perez, 20, and the teenage boys, whose names were withheld because they are minors.

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Guadarrama is suspected of beating victims with his fists and, on one occasion, a skateboard, Sgt. Mickey Williams said. 

The suspects are accused of taking part in a spree of crimes that began last October and continued until recently, Williams said. No life- threatening injuries resulted from the violence that accompanied the spate of property crimes, he said.

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Perez and Guadarrama were booked into county jail in Vista on suspicion of conspiracy, commercial burglary and participating in a street gang. The latter suspect also was expected to face charges of assault with deadly weapon, committing a violent hate crime, dissuading a witness and being drunk in public, according to Williams.

The boys were being held in juvenile hall on suspicion of many of the same crimes. Several non-fatal also occurred over the same period, though none of the arrestees were believed to have taken part in them. No suspects have been identified in those crimes, Williams said.

Assisting Carlsbad police with the searches and arrests were the Narcotics Task Force, North County Gang Task Force, county Probation Department, state Parole Department, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A SWAT team took part in the arrests of Guadarrama and one of the juveniles. All five suspects surrendered peaceably, the sergeant said. Guadarrama and Perez were being held without bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.

–City News Service

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