ANTIOCH — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives appears to be taking a special focus on the Sycamore Drive corridor, a section of town that’s been known as the city’s most violent neighborhood for more than a decade.

In two recent federal prosecutions charging Antioch residents with illegal gun possession, an ATF agent has included a breakdown of what federal authorities refer to as “Zone 309,” or the Sycamore Drive corridor, which runs between Auto Center Drive and L Street. It is known to police to be “the highest crime area of Antioch, CA, an area plagued by violent crimes and firearm violence,” Special Agent Richard Timbang wrote in affidavits attached to both cases.

“Recently obtained crime data from the Antioch Police Department confirms the level of criminal activity in Zone 309, and that it is getting worse. In 2020, Zone 309 experienced more than 14,000 calls for service, more than 38 calls per day,” Timbang wrote. “The number of arrests rose in Zone 309 in 2020 compared to 2019 across all categories, including violent crimes (murder, robbery, carjacking, assault), guns and weapons crimes, narcotics, and gang cases.”

Timbang cited anecdotal evidence — “officer experiences” and media reports — to suggest “the trend may only be getting worse” in 2021.

Both prosecutions involve guns that were allegedly uncovered amid shooting investigations, though in one of the cases, the defendant was investigated after his own apartment on the 1500 block of Sycamore Drive was shot up. In that case, police were told by an informant that the apparent intended target of the December 2020 shooting, Kardell Smith, is an Antioch gang member who carried a pistol for protection due to a “feud” with a rival gang.

Based on that, police conducted a parole search of Smith’s apartment in February, and allegedly saw him throwing a gun through a closed window. Photos of broken glass and a pistol on the ground are included in the criminal complaint. Smith was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and faces up to 10 years in federal prison if convicted.

The second case charges Adam Carpenter with the same offense. Police began investigating him in connection with a September 2020 nonfatal shooting on the 2100 block of Peppertree Way. Police reviewed surveillance footage from the day of the shooting. Timbang wrote that they saw a man identified as Carpenter exchanging gunfire with two people known in court records only as Suspect 1 and Suspect 2.

Carpenter was arrested at a Pittsburg gym in November, and said, “I ain’t been shooting at nobody,” when police told him he was a suspect in an assault with a firearm. He said he “got rid” of the gun seen in the surveillance footage, and confirmed with an Antioch officer he didn’t leave it where a child was liable to find it, according to the complaint. Carpenter is charged with possessing two Glock pistols allegedly found in a subsequent search of his home.