Fresno police crack down on Fresneck gang for alleged rapes and robberies

Fresno police arrested several members of a little-known street gang for a crime spree that included kidnapping, robbery, assault, home invasion and rape.

In all, 37 people from the gang known as Fresneck are under arrest, Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said Thursday.

Seven were indicted Friday by a grand jury. Meanwhile, police are looking for two women who were also indicted. Their names were not released.

"The way they operate is they repeatedly victimized the same individual," Dyer said.

Police learned about three rapes, he said. Twice, Fresneck gang members tied up the victim and raped her several times, he said. Timothy Vassar, 29, and Benjamin Horton, 31, are under arrest for the rapes, he said.

A third rape involved Vassar, who injected the victim with heroin. "He tied her up and raped her," Dyer said. The same victim was also tied up earlier to lure a male victim to a home, Dyer said.

The grand jury was used so the victims could testify in secret and not put themselves at risk of retaliation by the gang, Dyer said.

All of the alleged crimes happened in January, Dyer said.

Police got a tip Jan. 22 when the victim, who was robbed by three Fresneck gang members as well as a skinhead, called police at 3 a..m. from a home in the 1000 block of West Lansing.

The victim reported being attacked more than once.

On Jan. 10, there was a carjacking, assault with a deadly weapon and a robbery at the same Lansing address, police said. John Poytress, 36, was indicted for those crimes and was already in jail.

The next night, a robbery happened at 4030 E. Mono Ave. A female Bulldog gang member lured the victim to the address, where Vassar robbed him at knifepoint, officials said.

On Jan. 13, the same person victim was stabbed by two people in the 1000 block of West Lansing Avenue. Joie Carrell, 36, also indicted, is under arrest for the stabbing.

Carrell is considered the main leader of the gang, Dyer said. Carrell had been released from prison Jan. 10. The crime spree followed, Dyer said.

After finding out what happened, police arrested Carrell and several others and held them on violation of supervised release while they continued working on the case.

The Fresneck gang has been around Fresno for about 20 years but has not been in the news a lot because its members prey on the same people who are too traumatized to tell police, Dyer said.

The gang is mostly composed of whites who align with the Aryan Brotherhood and other white supremacy gangs when they are in prison, Dyer said.

Most of those indicted will probably never get out prison if found guilty, Dyer said. Other charges include grand theft, burglary, auto theft and felon in possession of a firearm.

This story was originally published May 24, 2018 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Fresno police crack down on Fresneck gang for alleged rapes and robberies."