About 50 people both in and out of prison were arrested in what prosecutors call the largest crackdown on white-supremacist gangs ever carried out in Orange County, federal and state officials announced Thursday.
Operation Stormfront -- named after a white-supremacist website called "Stormfront" -- was a collaboration between the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Orange County District Attorney's Office, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Orange County Sheriff's Department, U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Secret Service.
Orange County sheriff's and ATF investigators went undercover to infiltrate the white supremacist gangs and focus on drugs and gun crimes, authorities said.
Fourteen people were named in a total of three indictments charging them with extortion, conspiracy and solicitation of aggravated assault and murder, according to county prosecutors. About 20 others were arrested on suspicion of parole and probation violations, while one was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Altogether, a total of about 50 people were arrested.
"Operation Stormfront has taken 34 dangerous gang members off our streets through new indictments and probation and parole violations," Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said. "This is the largest-ever take- down of white supremacist prison and street gang criminal enterprises in Orange County."
The arrests included a married couple -- Wayne and Ruthie Marshall, Rackauckas said. Wayne Marshall is a "shot-caller" who was running his gang from an Orange County jail while awaiting trial on a series of robberies, he said.
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Ruthie Marshall had one man beaten and robbed twice after he took her car for several days without her permission, according to Rackauckas.
Ruthie Marshall is also accused of helping her husband carry out an extortion and assault conspiracy when Wayne Marshall learned that another white supremacist gang member "disrespected" him by not sharing drugs smuggled into the jail, Rackauckas said.
The 14 defendants in the state cases face up to life in prison if convicted, Rackauckas said.
"This was a significant bust," said Kevin O'Grady, Orange County's regional director for the Anti-Defamation League. "It's going to put a real dent in all of the racist gangs."
