51 people indicted in connection with ‘open-air’ drug market in East Village

A year-long police investigation into a drug-dealing operation in the East Village resulted in grand jury indictments against 51 people on more than 300 charges, officials announced Thursday.

The investigation, called “Operation Criptonite,” targeted dozens of people associated with a local sect of the Crips street gang that allegedly sold drugs — primarily near 16th and K streets — in an “open-air drug market,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said during a news conference.

The investigation was run through the San Diego Police Department and the district attorney’s Gang Unit and resulted in indictments on a variety of charges, ranging from drug sales to weapons offenses to child abuse, Stephan said. An additional 42 people were arrested in connection with drug-, gun- and violence-related cases, 16 of which included gang allegations.

District Attorney Summer Stephan discusses “Operation Criptonite.”

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

According to Stephan, the alleged gang members running the market used a centralized system to orchestrate a sophisticated operation. A leader — determined by whoever was watching the street that day, sometimes from a chair placed on the side of the road — would run traffic, handle the distribution of the drugs and ensure there were parking spots open for people who wanted to pull up and purchase narcotics, she said.

The group also allegedly sold to nearby homeless encampments — which helped lead to that population’s overdose rate, which is 118 times higher than that of those who are not homeless, Stephan said. Father Joe’s Villages, a San Diego homeless shelter, is also nearby.

From April 2021 to April 2023, the lucrative drug market led to a hotbed for criminal activity, which included 6,187 reports of violent crimes in the area — including stabbings, shootings and assaults — and more than 6,500 arrests, according to officials.

“The San Diego Police Department is constantly monitoring areas that become hotspots for crime,” said police Chief David Nisleit. “The residents’ calls for services and complaints in this area showed that we had to do something.”

Stephan said residents in the area called police nearly 56,000 times during the two-year period, leading investigators to believe the gang was causing a “rampage of lawlessness and destruction” in East Village.

Investigators seized drugs, cash and weapons during a year-long operation in East Village.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)

“The gang members, working in concert, lined their pockets from the sale of addictive drugs, causing enormous (amounts of) overdoses and triggering violence and destruction that benefited the gang and destroyed the community’s safety day and night,” Stephan said.

Deputy District Attorney Miriam Hemming said that during the operation, officers went undercover to purchase drugs and learn about the drug market’s network. Other officers conducted surveillance and helped execute search warrants at places they believed cocaine base — also known as crack-cocaine — was being manufactured out of hydrochloride, Hemming said.

Stephan said investigators pursued felony indictments through a grand jury because of what she described as a “revolving door” in arrests over recent years. The suspects normally arrested would be booked on lesser charges, released on low bail amounts and be back on the street “the same day,” she said.

“It became important to really present to a grand jury the big picture of what’s happening, how organized this is … and that their high profits go into feeding the gang guns and ammunition to continue to terrorize in other ways,” Stephan said.

After three weeks of prosecutors presenting evidence, a grand jury returned the indictments Wednesday.

Officers also seized 30 firearms, 3 pounds of cocaine base, nearly 8 pounds of cocaine powder, 350 grams of methamphetamine, 726 fentanyl pills and more than $79,000 in cash, officials said.

Twenty-four defendants remain at-large.