Public Safety

ICE Arrests 8 Tied To San Diego Gangs With Mexican Cartel Connections

By Amy Isackson / Border Reporter

Published January 27, 2010 at 11:21 AM PST

This story was published more than 14 years ago.

U.S. immigration officials have arrested 10 people in San Diego County in connection with a national operation targeting U.S. street gangs with transnational ties.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, officials say eight of the people arrested are associated with San Diego street gangs that work with the Arellano Felix Drug Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel.

Mike Carney is a Special Agent in Charge with ICE in San Diego. He says two people they detained are gang members. Six are gang associates. Carney says two others do not have gang ties, but are undocumented immigrants.

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He says San Diego street gangs sell drugs and smuggle guns for Mexican cartels.

"It's just that in a certain way it's nebulous. We know that the gangs are working with and being supported by drug trafficking organizations. But further investigation will reveal just the level of connectivity and how pervasive it is."

Carney says it is not clear if the eight gang members and associates who were arrested have ties to the cartels. He says the gang does, and the purpose of the arrests is to disrupt the gang's operations.

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Public Safety Drug War Tijuana

Amy Isackson

Amy Isackson was the border reporter at KPBS from 2004 to 2011. She covered breaking news and feature stories on California-Mexico border issues and immigration, for local and national broadcast. Amy got her start in public radio by pitching a series of stories about rural New Zealand - horse dentistry and sheep sheering - to Radio New Zealand's "Country Life" program. She then worked with Peabody Award-winning radio producers Nikki Silva and Davia Nelson, to help create the Sonic Memorial, a series of stories on the World Trade Center before, during and after 9/11. Amy's work has been recognized with awards from the Associated Press Television-Radio Association of California and Nevada, the California Chicano News Media Association, and the San Diego Press Club. She won the Sol Price Prize for Responsible Journalism in 2009 from the Society of Professional Journalists for her story about high school students smuggling people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. Prior to venturing into the wonderful world of public radio, Amy worked for Yahoo! Inc. for nearly five years as an editorial surfer, associate producer and broadcast communications manager. She majored in Latin American History at Williams College. She grew up in San Diego and made frequent trips south of the border.

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KPBS has created a public safety coverage policy to guide decisions on what stories we prioritize, as well as whose narratives we need to include to tell complete stories that best serve our audiences. This policy was shaped through months of training with the Poynter Institute and feedback from the community. You can read the full policy here.

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