LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Six people were taken into custody in Lake County last month as part of a nationwide operation targeting transnational criminal gangs.

“Project Wildfire” was a six-week operation led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, and its Homeland Security Investigations arm.

ICE said that the operation resulted in the seizure of more than 80 firearms and the arrests of 976 gang members and associates, including 178 gang members and associates across California.

In the Bay Area alone, 50 individuals were arrested, and ICE said all of those individuals are being prosecuted on state criminal charges, including various drug, weapons and parole violations.

Project Wildfire, which ran from Feb. 23 to March 31, led to the arrest of individuals tied to four different street gangs in the Bay Area – the Norteños, Sureños, Border Brothers and Skinheads, officials said.

Lt. Steve Brooks of the Lake County Sheriff's Office confirmed that local deputies – members of the sheriff's gang unit – were involved in the operation.

Nationwide, ICE said Homeland Security Investigations special agents worked with more than 200 state, local and federal law enforcement partners to apprehend individuals from various gangs.

Lori Haley, a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE, said six gang members were arrested in Lake County. She said they were not releasing the names of those taken into custody.

The operation in Lake County took place on March 24, Haley said, with five men and one woman arrested, all of them U.S. citizens.

Haley said four arrests took place in Clearlake, and one each in Lakeport and Upper Lake.

“They included members of the Modesto Hardcore Skinheads and the Norteños,” Haley said. “The basis for the arrests included probation violations, possession of drug paraphernalia and outstanding warrants.”
 
“Criminal gangs inflict violence and fear upon our communities and without the attention of law enforcement, these groups can spread like a cancer,” said Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah R. Saldaña “That's why ICE works with law enforcement partners around the country “to stamp out gang activity wherever it takes place.”

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