Eleven members of the Hop Sing gang were arrested in the Sacramento region

Eleven members of the Hop Sing gang were arrested in the Sacramento region – five had home addresses in Elk Grove – on suspicion of narcotics trafficking, including conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute and manufacture Ecstasy and marijuana.Federal officials have said that Hop Sing has been behind criminal activity in the area since the mid-1990s. Gang members grew most of their marijuana in California and imported their supply of Ecstasy from Canada.Lee sat down last week with The Bee to talk about the investigation and gang issues in Elk Grove.Question: What impact did the recent arrests have on the Hop Sing gang?
Answer: It was huge. Those individuals were major players in Hop Sing.
Question: What type of crimes were they responsible for in the past decade?
Answer: In Sacramento, we had arrested and convicted them for homicide. They've been involved in drive-by shootings, narcotic sales, extortion and burglaries.
We had a couple of cases (in Elk Grove) of fights at local high schools and an incident at a local eatery with a beat-down with baseball bats (of people they had run-ins with before).Some of the older Hop Sing gang members moved to south Sacramento and Elk Grove. They've basically been recruiting since 2003 or 2004 in the high schools.Question: Did they have any connection with the indoor marijuana grow houses that were busted in Elk Grove in the past two years?
Answer: That's still under investigation.
Question: How are the Asian gangs different from the other street gangs in terms of operation and organization?
Answer: They're definitely more convert and not in your face like (the) Norteños or Sureños. It's pretty rare to advertise their gang through their clothing or their graffiti. But, at the same time, they're as dangerous or more dangerous than any other street gang out there.
Question: How has the gang problem in the Sacramento region changed since you began as a gang detective?
Answer: I see the Asians, especially the Chinese and Vietnamese, (going) toward more high-end narcotics sales, so they're involved in large amounts of Ecstasy and large amounts of marijuana. They're even more discreet and covert than before. It makes it harder for us. It'll take longer and harder for us to identify them.
Question: How old are most of the gang members in Elk Grove? If they're young, why are they drawn to the gang life?Answer: What I've seen is a lot of gangsters start associating with negative elements at the eighth and ninth grades. And (at age) 15 or 16, if they get into it, they'll get in right then.
One of the first things why a child or juvenile goes toward a gang is something missing at home, whether parents aren't there or (a) lack of discipline in the child's life or extracurricular activities the juvenile doesn't participate in.
Someway, somehow, they gravitate to the gang life and the gang lifestyle.
Question: What type of crimes are the gang members in Elk Grove responsible for?
Answer: A lot of them have been involved in fights, beat-downs, strong-armed robberies, home-invasion robberies, car thefts and, of course, a recent conviction of a drive- by shooting and homicide.