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WATSONVILLE, Calif. -- Cities along the Central Coast are seeing an increase in gang activity. Some cities have to deal with rival gang conflicts, while others are starting to see more fights within the same gang.
Sgt. Saul Gonzalez has worked as an investigator at the Watsonville Police Department for the past 15 years. He's seen it all and understands how the gang system works. "Every gang is required to pay a tax to go to the prison gang. sometimes gangs don't do that and there's inter conflict," said Gonzalez.
Police say gang leader who are inside the prisons send messages out to the leader of the gangs on the streets telling them what to do. Gang Task Forces try to decipher some of the codes that are in these messages. It can be anything from a hit list, directions on how to act or changing the ranks in the gangs. That's where the inter-gang conflict starts. Lately the Bay Area has seen a spike in inter-gang fights. "We're talking entire gangs not just the members engaging in violence but all of the gang members," said Tony Chaplin of the San Francisco Gang Task Force.
Officers on the Central Coast say it's a little different, for now. "We are having an increase in gang activity but it seems to be rival gangs," said Gonzalez. Local departments we talked to said inter-gang violence comes in spurts. For now the focus seems to be about territory here, rivaling between the two biggest gangs in the area. "Two primary gangs that rival each other; surenos and nortenos," said Gonzalez.
"Most gangs are involved in narcotic sales on committing crimes where they're going to receive money, robberies and so forth with that money. They're required to pay a certain tax so that money can go to the prisons," said Gonzalez.
With so much gang conflict, police say its challenging to close investigations involving gangs because gang members are ordered not to cooperate with police even if they are one of the victims.
