The accused organizer of a criminal street racing group was arrested this week following a multijurisdictional effort by several police departments in metro Atlanta, authorities said Tuesday.
Jhostin Bardales, 20, was located around 8 a.m. Monday at his home in Gwinnett County after officers executed a search warrant with assistance by DeKalb County and Atlanta police.
“This was a great collaboration between all three jurisdictions,” Gwinnett police said in a news release.
Police said the warrant was executed following an ongoing investigation by Atlanta police over an Aug. 20 street takeover at the intersection of 17th Street and Northside Drive. In the incident, a trooper pursued a truck that was doing doughnuts in the intersection. During the chase, the truck tore through a crowd of spectators, one of whom broke a leg. Others were sent running in a panic.
The trooper forced the vehicle to spin out and yanked the driver out onto the hood of his cruiser a short distance away on Northside Drive – a takedown that went viral.
Credit: WSBTV Videos
Police have said those involved that day were tracked across Gwinnett and DeKalb counties by a street racing intelligence group made up of hundreds of law enforcement officers. The group was created in 2020 amid a rise of similar incidents during the coronavirus pandemic.
“One of our sources revealed to us that they were heading to the location over on Northside Drive. We advised our group, GSP got the intel and they headed right over there,” the intel group’s founder, DeKalb police Lt. Timothy Donahue told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an exclusive interview in September. “Everything just lined up perfectly and (the trooper) was able to do their magic.”
Monitoring social media channels and tracking the suspected vehicles using Flock and Department of Transportation cameras are among the methods law enforcement uses to catch those involved with street takeovers.
For the Aug. 20 takeover, DeKalb police identified the social media account that was directing the event and Atlanta police later determined the alleged organizer was Bardales, the news release stated.
An APD investigation found the criminal street racing group had directed racers to nine different intersections that night — four in Gwinnett, four in DeKalb, and one in Atlanta.
“The three jurisdictions then collaborated to investigate the incident,” Gwinnett police said.
Bardales was arrested and booked into the Gwinnett County Jail on three counts of promotion or organization of exhibition of illegal drag racing. He is being held on a $33,800 bond, online records show.
Police said additional charges from other jurisdictions “may be forthcoming.”
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