Youth Counselor Busted for Drugs, Weapons

(Richmond, California) A 29-year-old juvenile group counselor with the Richmond Parks Department, Kaisha Hill, was arrested Thursday during a massive sweep targeting violent gang members in the city.

Hill was apprehended with a kilogram of cocaine and three firearms, including a Mac-11 automatic weapon.

Some 200 state and local law-enforcement officials conducted raids in two waves, serving 43 arrest warrants in Richmond - predominantly in the city's crime-plagued Iron Triangle neighborhood - as well as elsewhere in Contra Costa County and Alameda, Marin and Sacramento counties.

The 18 people in custody were arrested on suspicion of a variety of crimes, including murder, assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at a vehicle and drug possession. About two dozen suspects are being sought.

Hill was identified as an associate of the Richmond gang called Deep C or Deep Central which has been under investigation for a year.