Largest complaint in county history is 437 pages. One man is charged in two murders. 52 people arrested in gang sweep charged with felonies.
Twelve Norteño gang members have been charged in four murders, while dozens nabbed in a sweep last week were also charged with robbery, drug possession and gang conspiracy in the largest criminal complaint ever brought in Tulare County history.
Gang leader Pedro “Pistol Pete” Sanchez, of Lindsay, isn’t charged with murder, but faces 47 counts including conspiracy to commit murder and could be sentenced to 1,000 years to life in prison if found guilty, the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office said.
His bail was set at $9 million.
In all, 52 people arrested last week in the multiagency Operation Red Sol gang sweep are named in the 437-page complaint involving 151 felony counts that was filed Monday in Tulare County Superior Court.
One defendant, Jason Ortega, 21, who was arrested Tuesday, is charged with two murders.
Three murders took place in Visalia, while the fourth involved a body that was dumped near Ivanhoe.
Phineas Alexander was shot to death on Dec. 14, 2014, while on the porch of a home on Northwest Second Street in Visalia. Alexander was not a gang member, police said. Ortega faces charges in that homicide.
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