'Operation Redwood' Nets 8 Arrests With 1 Murder Suspect: SCC DA

SAN JOSE, CA — An army of law enforcement agencies completed a joint operation in a violence-plagued San Jose neighborhood that netted eight accused criminals including a murder suspect and seized a drug lab, South Bay and federal entities announced Monday.

“Operation Redwood” was launched to stem a rising trend of shootings in San Jose’s Seven Trees
neighborhood concentrated between the Capitol Expressway and U.S. Highway 101. In addition to nabbing a homicide suspect and breaking up a drug lab, the raid captured multiple illegal firearms, among them a machine gun, the Santa Clara County District Attorney reported.

The operation was conducted through cooperation within the Santa Clara County D.A.'s, probation and sheriff's offices, Federal Bureau of Investigation, San Jose Police Department and California Department of Parole. The coalition announced the results of the raid at the Seven Trees Community Center.

County District Attorney Jeff Rosen said the successful effort served as a direct and collaborative response to a neighborhood at risk.

“We are here in Seven Trees to reduce gun violence in a neighborhood that has seen too much of it,” Rosen said. “The people of Seven Trees are rightfully proud of their neighborhood. None of us in law enforcement will allow anyone to turn your streets, your homes, your parks, your schools or your community centers into crime scenes.”

The operation went into affect in early April, with both federal, state, and local officers serving nine search warrants. In one search, police found and dismantled a fully operational and a dangerous butane honey oil lab in a home with minors in a residential neighborhood. In another location police found $42,000 in cash, a kilogram of cocaine, heroin, eight pistols and an assault rifle.

Five people are deemed already to possibly face felony charges for such crimes as illegal gun possession and drug sales, the D.A.'s office summarized. During the operation, officers arrested Jose Ramirez for the Dec. 14, 2018 murder of Nathan Johnson Harper outside El Rancho Liquors on Almaden Road in San Jose.

Ramirez was joined in the raid by Orlando Arias, Juvenal Arellano, Julian Gonzalez, Richard Herrera, Felipe Munoz, Michael Nieto and Shakwon Williams.

Rosen also announced that his office was donating $5,000 to the Franklin McKinley Children’s
Initiative, which runs a resource center in the neighborhood and a myriad youth and community
programs.

“Removing guns and dangerous criminals out of our neighborhoods is only part of our job,” Rosen said. “We need to put in resources and care.”