Two Valley schools were placed on lockdown Thursday morning, while the Riverside County Sheriff's Department served nearly a dozen search warrants nearby in a sweep dubbed "Operation Thunderbird".
Both Mecca Elementary School and Saul Martinez Elementary School were locked down from 7:55 a.m. to about 8:45 a.m., according to MaryLou Marrujo, secretary to Coachella Valley Unified School District Superintendent Ricardo Medina.
The district got a call from the Sheriff's Department requesting the lockdown of Mecca Elementary, because they were searching the area for several wanted people, Marrujo said. The district then voluntarily locked down Saul Martinez, too, because of its close proximity to Mecca Elementary.
[Related: Read more Coachella news here]The search in the area, which began at about 7 a.m., was for 9 search warrants and "numerous parole and probation compliance checks", according to Deputy Herlinda Valenzuela of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department.
The whole operation was spun out of a recent wave of violence in the area, including the shooting out of a sheriff's vehicle window which has been called an attempted murder, as well as the armed robbery of a SunBus driver.
"The investigation of these and other violent crimes focused on a local Mecca gang," Valenzuela said. "The purpose of Operation Thunderbird was to serve the search warrants, as well as to gather evidence in the ongoing gang related investigations."
The operation was conducted as a joint effort between the Sheriff's Department and several other state and federal agencies, and was wrapped up by mid-morning.
Following Operation Thunderbird, the following arrests were made:
1. Charles Skelton, of Mecca, for parole violation.
2. Bladimir Cruz, of Mecca, for weapons violations.
3. Jacqueline Cortez, of Mecca, for narcotics violations.
4. Santiago Lua, of Mecca, for weapons violations.
5. Carmen Ramirez, of Mecca, for an arrest warrant.
6. George Casillas, of Mecca, for weapons violations.
7. Ivan Villanueva, of North Shore, for federal violations.
In addition to the arrests, police found two firearms, brass knuckles, cockspurs and other items indicative of illegal cockfighting, which were all seized, according to Valenzuela.
Two stolen cars were found in the area as well, but no arrests were made in connection with the thefts.
