By The Porterville Recorder :
By KARA D. MACHADO

As part of a grant-funded Weed and Seed program to curb and stem gang activity, a gang sweep was conducted in the towns of Orosi and Cutler over the weekend.

According to a news release, on Friday and Saturday, detectives with the Tulare County Sheriff's Department's Gang Violence Suppression Unit, officers from the Multi-Agency Gang Network Enforcement Team, deputies from the Sheriff's Department's Orosi substation and agents from state parole and probation conducted the gang sweep.

During the two-day operation, officers conducted 39 probation searches, 14 parole searches and made numerous contacts and traffic stops in the area.

The combined two-day effort resulted in the arrest of 14 people for various violations, the seizure of illegal weapons and the seizure of about 20 grams of suspected methamphetamine and cocaine for sales. All those arrested were booked into the Tulare County Jail.

The Sheriff's Department's Gang Violence Suppression and MAGNET units are continuing efforts to curb gang-related crime and activity within the county, the release indicated.

The Sheriff's Department urges the public to report gang activity within their areas by calling the Sheriff's Department's toll-free gang hot line at (888) 363-4264.

Calls to the toll-free number can be made 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even from a pay phone. Calls are kept confidential and will aid in reducing gang-related activity within the county, the release indicated.