SAN MARCOS ---- About a dozen members of a San Diego street gang have moved north to a luxury apartment complex next to Cal State San Marcos and are dealing drugs to its students, sheriff's officials say.

"There appears to be a contingent of gang members from San Diego who have relocated to the area around (Cal State San Marcos)," said Sgt. Gary Floyd of the Sheriff's Department's San Marcos narcotic and gang detail.

"The indication we have is that they're involved in the sales of drugs, including marijuana, methamphetamine and Ecstasy," he said Tuesday.

Floyd's comments were made the same day authorities exposed a massive drug-dealing operation along San Diego State University's Fraternity Row. Seventy-five students were arrested.

Deputies in San Marcos have made seven arrests since late February of suspected gang members or associates of the gang on drug, parole and aggravated assault charges in the area around Prominence Luxury Apartment Homes, 601 S. Twin Oaks Valley Road, Floyd said.

The complex is right next to the usually quiet campus and its more than 9,000 students.

Despite the recent spate of arrests, he said, gang members still appear to be active in the area.

"I think as long as these folks are up here," he said, "we still have concerns."

He listed a dozen "persons of interest" that the Sheriff's Department believes are part of a southeast San Diego gang flushed out of town by an injunction and living in the apartments.

The 568-unit complex hardly looks like a gang hide-out, with earth-toned stucco apartment towers surrounding an expansive pool, workout center and tennis court. An apartment manager at Prominence declined to comment for this story, citing corporate policy.

Cal State San Marcos students, many of whom live at the apartment complex because of its proximity to campus, said they've noticed increasingly more crime and police presence since February.

"We had this timeline of pre-spring 2008 where it seemed like there was nothing (crimewise)," said a sophomore student from Poway. "Then all the sudden we had SWAT teams."

Deputies have increased the frequency of patrols in the area and have an open investigation into the alleged gang's activities, Floyd said.

Campus police have worked closely with sheriff's officials in investigating the alleged gang, Floyd said. In February, campus police tipped off deputies about an increase in marijuana sales. Working off that tip, Floyd said deputies, assisted by SWAT officers, searched a parolee's Prominence apartment at 6 a.m. Feb. 22.

Deputies arrested documented gang member Jerrmaine Sayles, 27, and found him in possession of Ecstasy and marijuana, a .32-caliber revolver, a 9 mm pistol and ammunition plus a shuriken, a martial arts weapon sometimes known as a "death star," according to court documents.

Several known gang members with violent criminal histories involving weapons and assault charges were observed during the search that nabbed Sayles, authorities said.

At the request of President Karen Haynes, the university sent a campuswide e-mail alert about the arrest later that day, spokeswoman Kaine Thompson said.

The event "underscores the importance of everyone on campus being vigilant and reporting suspicious activity to our University Police," the alert read.

Thompson said Wednesday university police have reported no further sightings of the alleged gang members on campus and said there has been no incidents to suggest students' safety is at risk. However, she confirmed that university police have made 19 drug-related arrests in the first four months of 2008 compared with 33 in all of 2007.

Prominence, an off-campus apartment complex, is solely under the jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Department, she said, leaving the university no role in policing it.

Sheriff's records show an ongoing history of problems at the complex.

Most recently, deputies responded to a report of a group of men fighting other men with a baseball bat and bashing in car windows at the complex at 2:30 a.m. May 1. Two men believed to be linked to the gang were arrested, Floyd said.

A sophomore student from South Lake Tahoe said he first noticed the alleged gang in February when driving into Prominence to visit friends. A group of men wearing red sweat shirts stood in the parking lot, apparently lookouts for other gang members. One friend has since been robbed at knifepoint, the student said, while another had his watch stolen.

"It's just been like living in a bubble ever since I got here," the student said. "This is the first time the bubble's been burst."

Contact staff writer Dan Simmons at (760) 740-5426 or dsimmons@nctimes.com.

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