San Benito County Sheriff’s deputies raided a Hollister home
Saturday, nabbing two of Hollister’s most wanted and arresting
eight others on a host of drug and weapon charges.
Hollister – San Benito County Sheriff’s deputies raided a Hollister home Saturday, nabbing two of Hollister’s most wanted and arresting eight others on a host of drug and weapon charges.
Deputies spotted Rolando Barrientos, who they say is a known gang member and wanted for a parole violation, driving in a car with two other people in the 100 block of College Street Saturday shortly after 10pm. Deputies pulled over the car, which had expired tags, but the passengers fled and threw a black bag over a fence of a house in that neighborhood.
Deputies caught the fleeing men after a brief foot chase and found a black bag containing darts and 63 grams of methamphetamine. All three suspects were arrested.
Deputies and State Parole Agent Terry Davis had been watching the house in the 100 block of College Street for over a week after getting a credible tip that Barrientos and Paul Ruiz, wanted gang members, were living there. The tip came from a community member who had seen their pictures on the “San Benito’s Most Wanted List” published in the Free Lance and called police, Sheriff Curtis Hill said.
“This is a perfect example of community policing,” Hill said. “This whole thing just fell into place after we got the tip.”
Deputies got permission from the owner, who had been renting the house, to search the premises. Inside, they found Ruiz and five other people – including a pregnant woman – who had been using the house as a hangout to use methamphetamine, according to police. A cursory search of the two- bedroom house turned up a horde of suspected stolen property and an indoor marijuana growing operation. Deputies then arrested the six residents on drug charges and proceeded to search the house. They found three glass pipes, two bags of methamphetamine, two rifles, a dozen rounds of ammunition, $200 in cash and 16 small marijuana plants.
During the search, Sean Krieg, a parolee at large from the Central Valley, also showed up at the house and was arrested for violating the terms of his parole.
Hill said Saturday’s raid was just the most recent example of a city and countywide crackdown on gang activity.
“We’re just getting started,” he said. “But this is only the suppression piece – we need to continue to work with the community on prevention and intervention to make sure young people know that this type of lifestyle leads to either prison or death.”
