Toonerville raid nets 20

Glendale police then began working with the LAPD and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to pin down Toonerville gang members, he said. Glendale detectives broadened the scope of the investigation through wiretap recordings as part of the Mongol shooting death, he added.

The arrests were considered a major coup by officials who consider Toonerville to be one of the 10 most violent gangs in the Los Angeles area.

“They are incredibly active,” Bratton said. “They have engaged in ambushing with police officers. They are a particularly violent gang — that’s why they made the top 10.”

Earlier this year, Los Angeles and Glendale officials obtained a permanent injunction on certain Toonerville members, forbidding named gang members from selling or possessing drugs, weapons and graffiti tools, using lookouts, trespassing, loitering and intimidating people who live and work within the Los Angeles River and Glendale Safety Zone.

Those named in the injunction must obey a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily curfew. The zone encompasses a 4.5-square-mile area that includes Verdugo Road, south Glendale, the 2 Freeway, Glendale Boulevard into Los Angeles and a 1.25-square-mile area of Tujunga just north of Foothill Boulevard.

City and police officials identified the areas as a safety zone because they were known as the Toonerville turf. Anyone who violates the provisions will be arrested and prosecuted under the terms of the injunction.

The Toonerville gang is similar to the Avenues gang, which took up a neighborhood on Drew Street, just outside Glendale’s city limits, police officials said. The Avenues terrorized residents, said Capt. Bill Murphy of the LAPD Northeast Division.

Toonerville has in much the same way terrorized Chevy Chase Park, he said.

His division has already established a mobile command center in the neighborhood surrounding Chevy Chase Park and will conduct foot patrols, he added.

“We are going to turn that neighborhood like we turned Drew Street,” Murphy said.