A 26-year-old Norteño gang member was arrested late Friday afternoon. Police recovered a high powered AK-47 assault rifle and a 100-round ammunition drum magazine following a high speed chase where speeds exceeded 100 miles per hour in and around Manteca.

Juan Carlos Salinas was arrested on a no bail warrant out of Sacramento County after the stolen 2005 Dodge pickup truck he was driving jumped the curbing in the 200 block of Northwoods Avenue, demolished a Comcast cable TV unit mounted in the grass that serviced some 25 nearby apartments and crashed through a wooden fence and into a house.

Manteca Police detective Steve Schluer who is part of the DELTARAT auto theft task force out of Stockton said he located the pickup truck earlier in the afternoon that had been stolen out of Tracy parked on Lancaster Drive.

He said when the suspect returned to the truck he contacted beat patrolman Barry Blackburn by radio who teamed up with DELTARAT in the high speed pursuit that followed onto Springtime Avenue to Louise Avenue eastbound to Jack Tone Road where officers said speeds exceeded 100 miles per hour.

Schluer let Blackburn in the black and white patrol car take the lead and he called out the direction of travel of the chase to the dispatcher on the radio and the cross streets they were passing to alert other officers.   The detective said the suspect tossed an AK-47 assault rifle out the window of the pickup truck on Louise Avenue as he was approaching Jack Tone Road.

The rifle was later recovered about 150 yards west of Jack Tone Road.

The pursuit continued south on Jack Tone to Highway 120 where the pickup turned west and headed back into Manteca with Friday afternoon traffic yielding to the oncoming sirens of the two police units.  The suspect drove under the Highway 99 freeway bridge to Northwoods Avenue where he turned right driving northward where the roadway veers to the left. 

The pickup jumped the curbing and careened across the grass of two apartment units and crashed through the fence and into the house.  Officers had lost sight of the truck, but when Blackburn rounded the corner he witnessed a man running and followed him into a nearby cul-de-sac.

Witnesses said the suspect ran into a wash room of a set of apartments and then reversed his direction and jumped fences exiting into the 1300 block of McNary Circle where Detective Schluer ordered him to the ground at gunpoint.  Officers said he was detained without further incident.

In the gutter near the crashed truck police found a 100-round loaded ammunition drum magazine and 7.62 mm rounds scattered on the roadway.

Charges against Salinas included possession of a stolen vehicle, two counts of felony vehicle pursuit – the second for driving on the wrong side of the road on Jack Tone Road and near Comconex Road off of Highway 120.  He was also charged with the possession of a firearm prohibited for a person with a certain criminal history.

Other charges include possession of narcotics with a firearm and being a prohibited person in possession of ammunition as well as possession of an assault weapon, possession of controlled substance of methamphetamine, transportation of narcotics and participating in a criminal street gang, hit and run and resisting or obstructing a police officer.

Police said the outstanding felony warrant out of Sacramento was for criminal threats to commit a crime that would result in death or great bodily injury.

DELTARAT was the primary chase agency with the assistance of the Manteca Street Crimes Unit that is investigating the firearm and dope-related charges.  A Comcast repair crew was on the scene replacing the damaged unit within 30 minutes.