18 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY AUGUST 6-12, 2026 www.montereycountynow.com In East of Eden, John Steinbeck described turn-of-the-20th-century Salinas as almost a paradise. Blessed with fertile soil, good weather and God’s providence, Salinas was a land of hope, opportunity and great promise. Steinbeck wrote, “Salinas was the county seat, and it was a fast growing town…everyone felt that a brilliant future was in store for it.” A hundred years later, at the turn of the 21st century, Salinas still held that promise; however, the Salad Bowl had become more of a poisoned chalice—a dark cocktail of crime, gang violence and bloodshed. For 30 years, the community had grown inured to it. It was simply the way things were: Death and gang violence had become part of the town’s makeup, or so it seemed. For those who lived and worked in Salinas during the 1990s and 2000s, violence was an albatross hung around the community’s neck. Ten years ago, on July 27, 2016, following a year with 40 murders, a Vice News article saddled Salinas with the unfortunate epithet “Youth Murder Capital of California.” We were a long way from Eden. Yet, in the years that followed, something changed. It is worth looking back with perspective to see how far we have come since 2016, even if the national narrative hasn’t quite caught up. Salinas was a violent city at the time, averaging almost 25 homicides a year between 2008 and 2018, a staggering number for a city of approximately 155,000 people. Working homicide cases was nothing unusual for the Salinas Police Department, but in 2017 detectives began linking a series of gang-related murders that appeared to be something more than traditional gang hits. The killers seemed to enjoy the violence; it was sport, and they thought it was fun. These killers carried out the murders for no “legitimate” need of the gang (not that there ever is a legitimate need). Salinas had experienced gang killings before, and in their own strange way they fit an understandable pattern. These murders did not. They appeared more random, more brutal and entirely unnecessary even from the perspective of a gang working to protect a criminal enterprise or assert dominance. The investigation culminated on Oct. 22, 2020, when a federal grand jury indicted six Salinas street gang members on charges including racketeering conspiracy, murder, conspiracy to commit murder and additional firearms and gang related offenses. The federal indictments resulted from a complex multi-year investigation known as Operation Redrum, which began with the Salinas Police Department and expanded through collaboration with the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. It was a turning point. The six indicted suspects, ranging in age from 24 to 33, some of whom were teenagers at the time of the murders, were members of a violent Norteño street gang and formed a criminal “crew.” A crew was a small, hierarchical group operating somewhat independently within the larger gang structure. They functioned almost like a street-level clandestine cell: a small unit maintaining autonomy in order to minimize the risk of detecA decade after Salinas was dubbed ‘the youth murder capital,’ a look back at an investigation that turned the tide of violence. By John C. Murray BREAKING THE CYCLE The new Police Service of Salinas headquarters opened in 2020, part of the city’s Alisal Vibrancy Plan. DANIEL DREIFUSS
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjAzNjQ1NQ==