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 to the Arizona Gang Investigators Association website,
The Arizona Gang Investigators Association “AZGIA” was formed in 2007 by law enforcement professionals throughout the Great State of Arizona. Our goal is simple – to provide you with the resources necessary to help reduce gang related crime. Communities are no longer able to say they do not have a gang problem, since each and every community is now affected by gangs. AZGIA provides quarterly training dates in four different regions of Arizona as well as hosting an annual training conference. We hope you will start making plans to attend the first annual AZGIA training conference to be held in the greater Phoenix Metropolitan area in April 2008. On behalf of the entire AZGIA Board of Directors, thank you for taking the time to visit the AZGIA website. Please stay strong and stay safe!
Arizona Gang Investigators Association President
KPHO.com
Agents Nab 32 Suspected Gang Members
Gang Transformed Street Into Drug Market, Police Say
POSTED: 8:26 pm MST March 19, 2008
UPDATED: 6:29 am MST March 20, 2008
PHOENIX -- Officers from federal, state and local police departments rounded up 32 suspected members of a south Phoenix street gang in "Operation Side Winder" on Wednesday. Nearly a pound of crack cocaine, two pounds of marijuana, 18 guns, one rifle and $30,000 in cash were confiscated, agents said. The investigation led to 565 criminal charges. The people arrested were being held in lieu of bail amounts ranging from $80,000 to $1.2 million, authorities said. Investigators singled out one woman who was arrested, Ebony Hickman, 32, as a major drug supplier in the area. "She was pretty much the main supplier of crack cocaine in the neighborhood," said Lt. Charlie Consolian of the Phoenix Police Department. "It's pretty clear-cut and dry. She was the powerful person in the neighborhood with crack cocaine." Police said they are still looking for 10 gang members.
"We will continue to hunt these other people, get them into custody and help neighborhood in the long run," Consolian said.
Agents said people living in the neighborhood, from between 7th Avenue and 19th Avenue from Buckeye Road to the U.S. 60, should see a dramatic drop in violence right away.
"This is a good day and we'll work hard to make sure those people in the neighborhood who were in charge will never come back," said Andy Anderson.
Authorities said they began targeting the south-central Phoenix neighborhood after a 14-year-old boy was shot last year.
Those involved in the nine-month investigation included officers and agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Phoenix Police Department, Arizona Department of Public Safety, United States Marshal's Service and The Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
Additional assistance was provided by United States Drug Enforcement Agency, Glendale Police Department, Scottsdale Police Department and Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
32 alleged gang members nabbed in Phoenix raids
JJ Hensley
The Arizona Republic
Mar. 19, 2008 05:21 PM
 Stand on the corner of 13th Avenue and Pima Street and it's not hard to see the impact of gang violence in this south Phoenix neighborhood.
Four roadside memorials dot the landscape, between single-family homes and abandoned houses, all honoring victims who were shot and killed in the street in the past year.
One of those killings in particular - that of 14-year-old Jimmy Brown Torres, who was gunned down in May - spurred Phoenix police into action last year.
That nine-month investigation culminated in the arrest of 32 people early Wednesday morning, and the indictment of 10 more who police are still searching for. Charges range from conspiracy and participating in a criminal street gang to drug possession and sales to undercover officers.
Local law enforcement tried the community approach in the neighborhood last spring, following a string of murders in the area, but Torres was killed on the sidewalk a few days after a community meeting, and police called in help from other agencies to infiltrate the area.
Police and city officials touted the effort as the first step in reclaiming that neighborhood.
"Those individuals terrorized this neighborhood," Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said at an afternoon press conference.
Agents started serving the warrants about 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to residents in the community, which sits roughly between Seventh and 15th Avenues and is bordered by Buckeye Road on the north and Interstate 17 on the south.
Phoenix police officers worked in conjunction with Department of Public Safety gang-enforcement agents, as well as representatives from the FBI and a host of Valley police agencies to identify and bring down the gang, which was responsible for turning parts of the neighborhood into an open-air drug market.
Police seized cash, cars, drugs and a variety of weapons in the early-morning raids.
The 565-count indictment details a list of criminal activity affiliated with the gang, which trafficked extensively in drugs, particularly crack.
Court papers identify Ebony Lee Hickman, 32, and Alfred Chambers, 37, as two members of the group who used minors to deal drugs.
The Rev. Ina Mae Copeland operates a faith-based community center in the area and said she saw the impact of gang activity on children in her afterschool program.
"Our children were in danger because of the activities that were going around and we wanted to make our streets safer for our children," Copeland said.
The operation couldn't have happened without the cooperation of residents in the area.
"Their words didn't fall on deaf ears. Because they're so engaged in the community, we know we need those residents and those leaders to stand with us to truly change things," said Lt. Michael Kurtenbach.
In a press conference at FBI headquarters Wednesday afternoon, one official after another took the podium to proclaim it a new day in the south Phoenix neighborhood.
But many in the neighborhood were skeptical that rounding up a few dozen gang members and drug dealers would have a long-term impact and others scoffed at the notion of being prisoners in their own homes, a claim city officials made earlier in the day.
Children streamed in and out of a park, chasing each other and playing basketball near Bethune Elementary School as dusk approached. That's a normal scene, said Michelle Timmons, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years.
"How can you see all this, and we're supposed to be prisoners in our own neighborhood," Timmons asked.
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