VCSD: ‘Jump in’ video showing gang
initiation leads to Fillmore arrests
December 31, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
Many have heard of gang “jump ins” where a prospective member undergoes a beating to be accepted into a criminal street gang and now the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department has one on tape... and you can watch online.
More Candid Camera than America’s Funniest Home Videos, the tape was used in an investigation that led to the arrest of eight men and juveniles in Fillmore, Piru and the San Fernando Valley.
According to VCSD Sgt. Jeremy Paris, the tape was obtained October 31 when a Sheriff’s Gang Unit served a search warrant in San Fernando - a city in Los Angeles County - at the residence of Salvador Velgara, 26. According to Paris, “Velgara is a documented member of a criminal street gang that operates in the city of Fillmore and surrounding communities.”
At the residence investigators found three firearms and methamphetamine packaged for sale as well as a digital camera.
The camera contained two videos of a gang initiation rite known as a “Jump In,” a violent introduction to the gang in which the new member takes a beating from his fellow gang members.
According to Paris, investigators identified the two subjects being “Jumped in” as juveniles living in Fillmore, and they learned the beating took place in March in the backyard of a residence in the 300 block of Del Valle Drive, also in Fillmore.
Identified as the participants of the “Jump in” was Brad Beltran, 25, Joseph Cabral, 25, and Damien Virgen, 23, all of Fillmore; Vincent Meraz, 23, and Rudy Meraz, 18, both of Piru; Velgara; and the two male juveniles of Fillmore.
On December 19, a combined team of 36 VCSD Investigators and deputies served warrants at four locations in Fillmore and one in Piru to retrieve evidence related to the crime.
Paris noted that during the warrant search Vincent Meraz, Rudy Meraz and one of the juveniles were arrested for suspicion of solicitation or recruitment to participate in a criminal street gang; it is a felony to recruit someone into a gang and carries specific enhancements for the use of violence and even tougher enhancements when the person being recruited is a juvenile.
Detectives arrested Beltran and Velgara, already in custody on other charges, for the gang “Jump in” related crimes; Virgen was contacted by phone and later turned himself in. Cabral was arrested after detectives said they found a collapsible baton, methamphetamine, and a methamphetamine pipe in his bedroom.
A photo of the gang members (the faces of the juveniles are covered) and video footage of the gang “Jump in” that occurred in Fillmore and led to the arrests is available via web link www.goo.gl/J2GQbs
