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By Kelly Thornton
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 15, 2002

A San Diego gang task force arrested 15 people in four states yesterday after a three-year investigation into a suspected cocaine and marijuana trafficking operation, authorities said.

Among the 10 arrested in San Diego County was Edric Jordan, a 37-year-old suspected gang member who was acquitted in the 1988 murder of San Diego police Officer Jerry Hartless.

Also arrested was Brandon Sanders, 28, a former professional football player for the NFL's New York Giants and the XFL's Las Vegas Outlaws. He was taken into custody in Tucson, Ariz.

Authorities said several of those arrested are documented gang members known as OGs, or Original Gangsters high-ranking veterans who have proven themselves with violence, said FBI spokesman John Iannarelli. Officials declined to identify the gang members among the suspects.

The suspects were charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana in San Diego, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada and North Carolina.

Some were charged with being felons in possession of firearms.

During simultaneous raids yesterday morning, about 150 law enforcement officers from federal, state and local agencies served 13 search warrants and seized seven vehicles and two dozen weapons, Iannarelli said. They made arrests in California, Nevada, Minnesota and Michigan.

Officials declined to give details of how the ring functioned but said dealers were far more sophisticated than the stereotypical gangsters staking out a dark corner of a bad neighborhood.

"What makes this unique is when people envision street gangs and drug sales by street gangs, they envision someone out on the street selling drugs," Iannarelli said. "They don't envision a scenario in which street gang members are setting up a sophisticated operation.

"We're seeing a lot of the OGs involved," he said. "Clearly, they've moved into this area of sophisticated drug trafficking."

According to a press release, the targets of the drug trafficking probe also are suspected of other crimes, including assaults, counterfeit money trafficking, prostitution and robberies, Iannarelli said.

Others arrested included Jason McKittrick, 31, of San Diego; Lloyd Lake, 28, of El Cajon; Tim Patrick, 35, of Chula Vista; Arnold Gay, 34, originally from San Diego but living in Oxford, Mich.; Otis Henderson, 31, of San Diego; Erick Whitlock, 36, of San Diego; and Paul Neahrine, 33, of Jamul.

Also taken into custody were Rainbow Bradley, 21, of San Diego; Brian Walter McCaskill, 29, of San Diego; Ursla Jones, 28, of San Diego; Robert Delkener, 35, of Pahrump, Nev.; Gregory Chambers, 55, of Columbia, Minn.; and Sharea Moore, 22, currently in state custody on another matter.

Sanders, a Helix High alumnus, was a defensive back with the New York Giants in the late 1990s.

Jordan was among six Syndo Mob gang members, including Stacy Butler, prosecuted in the murder of Hartless.

Hartless, 24, was shot once in the head in Lincoln Park about midnight Jan. 8, 1988, while chasing someone who was never positively identified.

Prosecutors first tried Butler in 1991, but that jury deadlocked 6-6. Prosecutors then charged Butler and the five other men. The second jury convicted all but Jordan and Kyle Winters of charges ranging from murder to conspiracy to commit murder.

Winters pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter after the jury hung 11-1 on his guilt. Jordan was acquitted.