There was a massive assault by police this morning in Los Angeles on the Avenues gang. According to the Los Angeles Times, "roughly 1,200 heavily armed officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and several other agencies dispersed from a command post near the LAPD's training academy in Elysian Park."

The Times adds that:

Warrants in hand, they descended on dozens of homes in search of 53 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang wanted on an array of federal charges related to extensive drug dealing, unsolved murders and other crimes.

Forty-three suspects already are in custody on unrelated charges.

The Associated Press says that:

Aside from murdering rivals, dealing drugs, graffiti tagging and other crimes, the gang is accused of making threats and carrying out acts of violence against police officers, culminating in two attacks that rocked the law enforcement community last year.

The first of these, on Feb. 21, 2008, saw Avenues gang members open fire with handguns and an AK-47 on Los Angeles police officers. Police shot back, killing 20-year-old Daniel Leon, whose nickname was 'Clever,' and injuring another man.

Then on Aug. 2, 2008, off-duty Los Angeles County sheriff's Deputy Juan Escalante was shot dead in front of his parents' home northeast of downtown.

Last February, NPR's Mandalit Del Barco reported about another way authorities were going after the Avenues — destroying the gang's headquarters:

Update at 2:25 p.m. ET. Regarding today's raid, Mandalit now reports that "a 222-page indictment alleges the mostly Latino gang also intimidates African-Americans in the neighborhood. Today's arrests were part of an ongoing investigation into street gangs with ties to the Mexican mafia."