Operation ENCRIPTED: Year-Long Surveillance Takes Down Alleged Crack Market Near Petco Park

By Jose E. Navarro

SAN DIEGO — July 16, 2026

A federal grand jury indictment unsealed this week charges 30 alleged West Coast Crips gang members and associates with running an open-air crack cocaine market on Imperial Avenue, roughly a mile and a half east of Petco Park. The takedown, dubbed Operation ENCRIPTED, was led by FBI San Diego in coordination with federal, state, and local partners.

The scale of the operation was substantial. More than 350 members of the FBI’s Violent Crimes Task Force — Gang Group, alongside federal, state, and local law enforcement, executed 21 search warrants across homes and vehicles in San Diego on the morning of the takedown. Twelve tactical FBI teams targeted 23 locations, arresting 28 of the 30 defendants named in the indictment; as of early afternoon, two remained at large.

Prosecutors allege the market functioned as both a street-level retail operation and a wholesale supply point, moving an estimated 20 pounds of cocaine base weekly — product with a street value exceeding $550,000 — with supply later resold across neighborhoods surrounding downtown.

U.S. Attorney Adam Gordon framed the message plainly: “San Diego is a paradise, but it’s not a gangster’s paradise.” FBI Director Kash Patel described the operation as building on the bureau’s broader 2026 effort, which he said has already disrupted more than 1,200 alleged gangs and criminal enterprises nationally.

The investigation began in 2024, when authorities first focused on West Coast Crips members suspected of running the market while committing violent acts in the surrounding neighborhood — a pattern that made the corridor near Imperial Avenue a persistent flashpoint for both drug activity and violent crime.

For residents and businesses along the corridor, the case is likely to be read as evidence that sustained, multi-agency investigation remains the most reliable — if slow-moving — tool against entrenched, gang-controlled drug markets. The defendants face charges of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base; prosecution will proceed in federal court in the Southern District of California.

— Jose E. Navarro, The Navarro Report

Human-Directed AI Journalism: Research, analysis, and editorial direction by the author. Drafted in partnership with Claude AI (Anthropic).