Gang, drug activity takes hit in Q-C
Quad-City law enforcement officials said Wednesday that they hope a batch of narcotics-related indictments will help keep the Lowrider street gang from regaining its former strength.
“There has been a resurgence of gang activity in the area, although it is not as violent,” U.S. Attorney Matthew Whitaker said, adding that the arrests will prevent the Lowriders from “heading back to a time we don’t want to go back to. These arrests are
significant in the amount of drugs and significant in the amount of cash that was seized.”
Five Quad-City members of the Lowriders have been charged in federal court with trafficking in cocaine and
marijuana, authorities said.
Sgt. Kevin Marxen, a member of the Davenport Police Department’s Tactical Operations Bureau who investigates gang and vice activity and street crimes, said the Lowriders have a membership of about 200 in the Quad-Cities, but the number is subject to fluctuation.
Davenport police Major
Donald Schaeffer said there are about 12 active street gangs in the Quad-Cities.
Speaking during a news
conference at the Davenport Police Department, Whitaker said four of the people charged — Joseph Nache, 24, Alejandro Herrera, 31, Paul David Stocker, 57, and Miguel Hernandez-Granados, 31 — are in federal custody.
A fifth man, Troy Sountris, 25, remains at large, he said.
The drug conspiracy not only crossed state lines, but also the nation’s border.
“The drugs were imported from Texas, and Texas drugs generally come from Mexico,” Whitaker said.
A total of 14 federal, state and city law enforcement agencies participated in the investigation, which culminated this week. At 6 a.m. Tuesday, three state search warrants and one federal arrest warrant were executed, he said.
Nache was arrested in East Moline for conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine, using and carrying a firearm during and in furtherance of drug trafficking and kidnapping. Sountris faces similar charges.
During a search of Nache’s residence, authorities said they seized four pounds of marijuana, $32,000 in cash and three vehicles. A storage locker allegedly belonging to Nache held another 53 pounds of marijuana, officials said.
Nache and Sountris are believed to have made frequent automobile trips to Texas during 2001 and 2002 to purchase drugs for resale in the Quad-Cities, Whitaker said.
On Wednesday, more than 50 federal, state and local Quad-City police officers divided into teams to serve four search warrants and one arrest warrant, he said. Officers searched Herrera’s Davenport residence and arrested him.
Two of the suspects already were in custody.
Stocker, who is from Las Lunas, N.M., was arrested May 31 after authorities stopped his vehicle in Nebraska and seized 170 pounds of marijuana. Whitaker said that load of marijuana was to be delivered to Hernandez-Granados, who was arrested June 1. A total of $37,200 was seized from him at the time.
The charges also allege that a co-conspirator in the scheme, identified in the indictment only as K.R., was kidnapped and threatened because of a lost shipment of drugs.
Marxen said the investigation that led to the indictment of the five Lowriders started about three years ago.
“We went to the U.S. Attorney with two big books of material,” he said, adding that the department likes working with federal authorities because prison sentences at the federal level are much stiffer than in the state system. Also, there is generally no parole in the federal court system, so full sentences have to be served.
Gangs have 20-year Q-C history
Street gang activity really started in the Quad-Cities during the mid- to late 1980s, Marxen said. Most of the influence came from Chicago gangs, such as the Gangster Disciples, which is under the umbrella of what is known as the Folk Nation, and the Vice Lords, a gang of the so-called People Nation.
There are various gangs under the Folk and People nations, he added.
“We also had some homegrown gangs, such as the Lowriders and the Westside Mafia, which is the white supremacist group,” he said.
Gang membership changes constantly, Marxen said, so it is hard to tell just how many there are in the Quad-Cities. Also, the gangs adapt to law enforcement tactics, so police must continually adapt their investigations.
As an example, he said, members once freely admitted they were in a gang and had tattoos and wore gang colors to demonstrate that.
“But the gang members learned we would use that against them,” he added.
Today, he said, it is harder to tell whether someone is a gang member since tattoos may have been removed or put on parts of the body where they generally will not be seen. The gang’s colors are rarely worn, and hand signs are kept to a minimum as well.
Gang activity is cyclical, Marxen said, and constant vigilance is necessary to keep a lid on it so the violence of the 1980s does not return to the Quad-City area.
“A lot of the older gang members are in prison or may just be getting out of prison,” he said. “So, the young ones are moving up. And if they are gang wannabes, then I say they are in a gang.”
Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.