At approximately 8:43 am., Monday, October 22, 2018, Officers responded to the report of a business wall being spray painted (tagged) at 159 Railroad Street. Police Detectives began working the case and discovered through video surveillance, the crime occurred on Sunday, October 21, 2018, just before 1:00 am. The video revealed three (3) what appeared to be Hispanic males in an older model Lincoln Town-Car commit the trespassing act with what is believed to be Gang Graffiti.
Over the past several weeks, Detectives had the incident disseminated on the department’s social media platform, conducted interviews and worked with the Cartersville Police Department because persons responsible were known to their department and thought to live in that area. After further keen investigative work, Detectives discovered the three (3) suspects are members of the Cartersville Vatos Locos (CVL) gang and tagged the wall because they had issues with individuals here in Canton.
On Wednesday, November 7, 2018, Detectives secured arrest warrants for Luis Alberto Rocha age 24 of Cartersville, GA, Juan Estaban Gallegos age 24 of Cartersville, GA and Coty Lance Gallegos age 31 of Kingston, GA., all charged with Criminal Trespass and violation of the Georgia Criminal Street Gang Act. At the time of this press release, Juan Gallegos is in custody and Detectives with assistance from the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) are searching for the other two (2) individuals.
Chief Mark J. Mitchell added, “Our Detectives dedicated many hours to solve this case. As you can see, these offenders are not from our city and I urge those who live here that were the subject of their tagging to take heed of how hard our Officers and our law enforcement partners work to ensure individuals who commit these crimes will be sought out, arrested and charged accordingly.”
Chief Mitchell continued and said, “We want to thank the Cartersville Police Department, Kingston Police Department and the FBI for their vital assistance with this criminal activity.
