Gangs Get Younger

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When Centralia police Sgt. Pat Fitzgerald talks about gangs, and about how newer members are given nicknames based on certain characteristics, such as a personality trait, he can't entirely restrain his amusement when he mentions a young guy called Grover.

It's not really funny, but:

"When you hold his picture up next to Grover, from 'Sesame Street,' you can see the resemblance," he said.

An incident last month at Centralia High School focused the public's attention on what seems to be a new or growing gang problem in the Centralia area that might be attracting younger and younger members, but it's something that's been on the radar screen of Centralia police for awhile.

Fitzgerald, the department's veteran gang specialist, traces the current rise in local gang activity back to late 2002 or early 2003. It's become more prevalent in the last two years, he said.

"There is a structure, but it's not as formalized, not here, as people seem to think," Fitzgerald said.

On the morning of April 26, more than a dozen uniformed and armed law enforcement officers converged on Centralia High School after a custodian found scrawled on a bathroom wall the words "LVL will get shot up on Thursday."

Nothing happened, but it followed closely the mass shooting at Virginia Tech, a tragedy that created a heightened awareness of what one gunman could do.

The Lewis County Sheriff's Office, whose jurisdiction includes the high school, said it was an educational day for its officers. Responding deputies were brought up to speed on gang issues among teenagers by school leaders and the Centralia police.

It's not new, but authorities don't like to talk about it too loudly, or in specifics.

Fitzgerald put it this way: If the newspaper prints the name of the LVL, which stands for Little Valley Lokotes, he said, or its rival group, he believes the participants would welcome the notoriety and use it to elevate their credibility and membership.

"What I don't want is to do anything to recognize these knuckleheads for anything," Fitzgerald said.

What is new in northern Lewis County is the age of those who gravitate to the gang culture, according to Fitzgerald.

Calls to police about a month ago came from parents of three children at Jefferson-Lincoln Elementary School who said an older boy, from nearby Washington Elementary, was harassing their children, according to Fitzgerald. The oldest pupils at Washington are in sixth grade.

"This is the first time in 10 years we've heard of kids in the elementary school actively recruiting," Fitzgerald said.

Fitzgerald didn't give specifics, but he said the "recruiting" might come in the form of the boy intimidating others to wear a certain color, or to say a certain thing when they see the older boy.

Fitzgerald, who grew up in Southern California, prefers to talk about the big picture.

In the Western United States, there are two predominantly Hispanic gangs; Nortenos, which is the Spanish word for north, and Surenos, which is Spanish for south.

Surenos claim an affiliation with the Mexican Mafia, a Southern California-based prison gang. Nortenos claim a connection with the prison gang Nuestra Familia.

It's not like the stereotype of gangs protecting neighborhood turf, according to Fitzgerald. It's all about money.

They deal in drugs and illegal guns, he said.

Surenos-affiliated groups almost always outnumber Nortenos, and that's the case in Centralia, according to Fitzgerald.

The largest gang in Centralia is made up of those who call themselves Little Valley Locos or Little Valley Lokotes, according to Fitzgerald.

The most visible sign is graffiti that keeps popping up in blue or black spray paint around town, such as "LVL" or "Surrenos" and the number 13.



He estimates there are between 25 and 40 local members. They are people who grew up in Centralia, not outsiders, according to Fitzgerald.

Some, he believes, are young men who went to prison and met similarly minded criminals from other parts of the state, such as Yakima. When released, they had absorbed the gang culture at a more sophisticated level and had more connections.

An escalation in gang-related crimes in recent months in the lower Yakima Valley recently included a 20-year-old Sunnyside man who died from a gunshot wound. Two teenagers were arrested.

The crimes that come to Fitzgerald's mind when he thinks of gangs locally run the gamut, from assault, theft, burglary and illegal possession of firearms, to selling and transporting drugs.

Exactly what the appeal is, Fitzgerald said, he doesn't know, but he has some ideas.

He traces a rise in the 1990s in gang activity in Centralia to one youth who came from Los Angeles to live with his uncle in Centralia.

"He organizes himself a little gang of local Hispanic kids, and we have a five-year crime wave," he said.

That group called itself Barrio Hazzard. Eventually, some of them went to prison, he said.

Fitzgerald said there are increasing signs of a Nortenos-related presence. But it's very small and not organized in Centralia, he said.

Police Chief Bob Berg sees the possible emergence of a second and rival gang as something that will cause problems.

Berg points to "tagging over tagging" and potential battles for perceived dominance.

"Nothing has percolated to my desk that says the LVL here is drug trafficking," Berg said on Friday.

The Centralia Police Department has stepped up efforts to stop it from getting worse.

In December, it reinstituted the gang task force, a group that includes representatives from police, schools and probation officers, and that meets monthly.

And every Friday, a Centralia officer meets with the high school leaders to talk about problems related to gangs and other things, Berg said. That began about three or four months ago.

Even though Centralia High School is outside the city limits, and in the jurisdiction of the sheriff's office, Centralia police are in negotiations to put a school resource officer at the high school, Berg said.

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives earlier this year reported that law enforcement has seen the Nortenos street gang becoming more active in the Seattle area and in Yakima.

Agents with the ATF Violent Gang Task Force in January arrested two men and seized six kilos of cocaine (worth more than $100,000), a semi-automatic Uzi rifle and a stolen revolver.

Special Agent Doug Krogh is based in Seattle, and is a supervisor for the ATF Intelligence Office.

In Washington, with gangs, he said, "There's more money to be made selling guns sometimes than dope."

When he thinks of Hispanic gangs, violent crime and selling illegal guns or drugs, he thinks of the Interstate 5 corridor and bigger cities such as Seattle, Tacoma, Yakima and Spokane, he said. Krogh said he's not very familiar with Centralia.

"You have a few that come from L.A. that have the big contacts with running dope," Krogh said. "The smaller players are like the farm teams."

Sharyn L. Decker covers law enforcement, local fire departments and the courts for The Chronicle. She may be reached by e-mail at sdecker@chronline.com, or by telephoning 807-8235.