Three known gang members with loaded firearms arrested

July 05, 2013
Santa Paula Police Department

Santa Paula Police arrested three gang members Saturday evening for carrying loaded firearms among others charges that resulted from a vehicle stop conducted as part of a concentrated enforcement detail.

According to a statement prepared by SPPD Senior Officer Larry Johnson, the arrests occurred June 29 at approximately 7:45 p.m. Due to recent gang activity including two homicides and various reports of shots fired throughout the city, officers have been working a concentrated enforcement detail targeting gang members.

On Saturday SPPD officers conducted a traffic stop of a gold Honda Accord that had been observed in the area of 7th and Santa Barbara streets, “within close proximity of the recent homicide” - Friday’s N. 6th Street drive-by shooting of 24-year-old Joseph Arellano - that Johnson stated, “appeared suspicious to the officers.” Inside the Honda officers found three members of a Santa Paula criminal street gang, Mayra Montiel, 23, Emilio Montiel, 30, and 20-year-old Eric Medrano, all city residents known to Santa Paula Police.

Emilio Montiel was found to be on active probation and parole (PROS) early release, and Medrano was found to be on active probation. Montiel’s and Medrano’s parole and probation terms allowed officers to conduct a probation search of the vehicle. 

It didn’t take long for officers to find a weapon: Johnson stated that “In plain view, in Mayra Montiel’s purse, a loaded pistol was located,” and during the search officers found two more firearms, one of which was also loaded. Officers arrested all three occupants of the vehicle and later transported them to Ventura County Main Jail.

Emilio Montiel was charged with being a gang member suspected of carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, a felon carrying a loaded firearm, felon in possession of ammunition, witness intimidation, participation in a criminal street gang, conspiracy to commit a crime, and attempted shooting into an inhabited dwelling.

Mayra Montiel and Medrano were both booked on charges of being a gang member suspected of carrying a loaded firearm, carrying a concealed weapon in a vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm, witness intimidation, participation in a criminal street gang, conspiracy to commit a crime and attempted shooting into a inhabited dwelling.

In recent weeks there has been numerous reports of gunshots heard throughout the city, suspected by police to be tied to gang members. 

According to SPPD Acting Lt. Ishmael Cordero, the charge against the three of shooting into an inhabited dwelling is based on speculation: “They were stopped in the area of a homicide, right around the corner or so, they had three weapons,” two that were loaded, “and bandanas... what are they going to do?” The same theory, he added, “would tie in” to the charges of witness intimidation.





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