Mexican Mafia and the 18 street gang

[mayugastank]

June 26, 2009

RICO Case: Mexican Mafia 'Shot Caller' Nabbed for Murder of 3-Week-Old Baby
Indictment of 8 includes money laundering, narcotics trafficking, kidnapping and violence

By Jim Kouri

(The following is based on reports and court documents obtained by the National Association of Chiefs of Police's Organized Crime Committee.)

Federal and local law enforcement authorities on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 arrested eight of 39 members and associates of one of the most entrenched “cliques” of the Los Angeles 18th Street Gang after the return of federal criminal charges alleging that the gang operated a racketeering enterprise responsible for the October 2007 attempted murder of a street vendor near MacArthur Park that resulted in the fatal shooting of a 3-week-old infant, a murder of an innocent young man that occurred in 2001, and other crimes.

Two weeks ago, a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment in a racketeering case that now charges 39 members and associates of the Colombia Lil Cycos (CLCS) set of the 18th Street Gang. In addition to the fatal shooting of the infant, which is also being prosecuted by the District Attorney in Los Angeles, the federal indictment alleges that the gang was responsible for the subsequent kidnaping and attempted murder of the CLCS member who wounded the vendor and killed the child.

The superseding indictment also charges three defendants with the 2001 murder of Jose Barajas, whom gang members allegedly mistook for a rival. In addition, the indictment charges a criminal defense attorney with laundering the gang’s illegal proceeds and committing other acts on behalf of, and at the direction of, an imprisoned Mexican Mafia member, identified in the indictment only as "Mexican Mafia #1."

The anti-gang operation is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department. This federal indictment supersedes an October 2007 federal indictment that charged 18 defendants with alleged drug trafficking, and a subsequent November 2007 federal indictment that charged a nineteenth defendant. Fifteen of the defendants named in the original federal indictments are charged in this superseding federal indictment, along with an additional 24 defendants who were not previously charged.

The 31-count superseding federal indictment unsealed today charges 39 members and associates of the CLCS with participating in a racketeering conspiracy that involved acts of violence, narcotics distribution, money laundering and violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR). Lead defendant Sergio Pantoja, aka “Tricky,” 33, is described in the indictment as a “Shot Caller” of the CLCS, which is alleged to have been controlled by a Mexican Mafia member currently serving a life-without-parole sentence.

The CLCS allegedly used violence and intimidation to control narcotics distribution in an area adjoining MacArthur Park in the Westlake District of Los Angeles. According to the indictment, under Pantoja’s direction, as well as the direction of CLCS Shot Callers who preceded Pantoja, narcotics suppliers and street dealers paid “rent” – typically a percentage of proceeds from the sale of narcotics – in exchange for permission from the CLCS to sell narcotics in the gang’s territory; those who paid rent received the exclusive authorization to sell narcotics in CLCS territory as well as protection from rivals.

The indictment also alleges that street vendors operating in CLCS territory were required to pay rent to the gang in order to be allowed to sell their wares near MacArthur Park. According to the indictment, failure or refusal to pay rent and otherwise follow the gang’s rules would result in retribution, including acts of violence.

The indictment alleges that on September 15, 2007, after a street vendor refused to make a nominal rent payment to the CLCS, at the direction of Pantoja, several CLCS members and associates acted together to shoot and seriously injure the vendor. Although the man survived, a 3-week-old infant sitting in a stroller next to the vendor was struck by a bullet and killed.

According to the federal indictment, shortly after the failed attempt to murder the vendor and the resulting fatal shooting of the infant, Pantoja ordered the kidnaping and murder of the shooter to make amends with the Mexican Mafia. 18th Street Gang members thereafter took the shooter to Mexico under the false pretense of hiding him from the police. Once in Mexico, the federal indictment alleges, the shooter was driven to a remote area, where he was strangled, and dumped on the side of a road. Unbeknownst to his would-be killers, the shooter survived the attack.

“Today we are holding this gang accountable for the violence and intimidation it used to bring terror to the citizens living and working within the gang’s territory,” said United States Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien. “The tragic murder of a 3-week-old infant is the result of a rebuffed demand for $50. The citizens of this community deserve better, and we are working with every tool at our disposal to clean the streets of gang activity.”

"This investigation is the result of several years of collaboration by agents and their partners with the LAPD and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, to identify the senior leadership of this particular 18th Street gang clique, and to use federal racketeering statutes to target shot callers who, otherwise, would continue to operate with impunity," said Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

The indictment charges criminal defense attorney Isaac Guillen, 48, of West Covina, CA, with regularly transferring thousands of dollars of CLCS rent proceeds to a Mexican Mafia member imprisoned at the federal “Supermax” facility in Florence, Colorado. According to the indictment, from October 2003 until September 2008, Guillen transferred approximately $27,500 into the Mexican Mafia member’s prison account. The indictment also alleges that Guillen and the imprisoned Mexican Mafia Member are partners in several businesses, including a limousine service, a liquor distributor, and a real estate holding corporation.

"We have known for a long time that this particular clique of the 18th Street gang was a criminal enterprise with a reach far beyond any single neighborhood or city," said Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department. "Today is an excellent example of multiple law enforcement agencies working together to impact a criminal street gang with tentacles that cross jurisdictional lines and even prison walls."

All of the defendants charged in the federal indictment are facing a potential maximum sentence of life imprisonment based on their alleged participation in the CLCS racketeering conspiracy and/or their alleged participation in narcotics distribution within CLCS territory. Each of the defendants alleged to have participated in the September 2007 murder of the three-week old infant, as well as three individuals charged in connection with the July 2001 murder of 22 year old Jose Barajas, face a potential maximum penalty of death.

[MENACE18]

free all the homies from that infamous WESTSIDE XV3ST COLUMBIA LIL CYCLONES

tricky
hatred
nefty
clumsy
crimes
rascal
bullet
snapper
puppet
stomper
oso
chucky
wyno




and the rest of the BEST homies, and that vato wasnt from 18, the homie nefty told me, homie locked up in pensalvania state prison with other homies, they got that on lock

[MENACE18]

the names of vatos from 18 who ranked it

grinch from WS18ST 106TH TWS ranked it on rivals in inglewood and got jumped out by the homies

flaco from WS18ST RPK PWS got scared when the homies wanted him to bust a mission on a florencia and the next day he left and joined florencia 64st became lil flaco, his sister flaca a sexy ass hyna talked all this shit about him leaving the hood, next day the bitch claims playboys lol

termite from WS18ST CLCS got a hit put out on him cuz puppets wife thought he was a rat even tho he wasnt, he snitched after they tryed to kill him

[Fraxx]

this is why things are fucked up..just because a woman things she is right to point the finger on a homie and say he is a rat..and he isn't then he becomes a rat..i would do the same in a situation like that..free hatred..do u know what sentences face got??

[youngspade]

this is why things are #%@& up..just because a woman things she is right to point the finger on a homie and say he is a rat..and he isn't then he becomes a rat..i would do the same in a situation like that..free hatred..do u know what sentences face got??

lol

[mayugastank]

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Mexican Mafia allegedly ordered hit after baby was killed in MacArthur Park
June 18, 2009 | 6:42 am
When a stray bullet from a gang member's gun struck 3-week-old Luis Angel Garcia in the heart and killed him in 2007, police, politicians and ordinary Angelenos expressed outrage over the infant's death.

But they weren't the only ones. Members of the Mexican Mafia, the notorious prison-based organization that authorities say controls Latino street gangs, demanded that those responsible be killed, according to an indictment unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The edict, known as a "green light," was aimed at members of the 18th Street gang, who were thought to have killed the baby during a botched attack on a street vendor who'd refused to pay "rent" to conduct business in the gang's territory near MacArthur Park.

Hoping to avoid the Mexican Mafia's wrath, the 18th Streeters decided to take care of the problem themselves, according to authorities. In the days after the baby’s slaying, two gang members lured the shooter to Mexico under the false pretense that he was being hidden from police investigating the murder, the indictment states. Once there, they attempted to strangle him and left "him for dead on the side of a road," according to prosecutors.

[MENACE18]

Previous Post | L.A. NOW Home | Next Post »

Mexican Mafia allegedly ordered hit after baby was killed in MacArthur Park
June 18, 2009 | 6:42 am
When a stray bullet from a gang member's gun struck 3-week-old Luis Angel Garcia in the heart and killed him in 2007, police, politicians and ordinary Angelenos expressed outrage over the infant's death.

But they weren't the only ones. Members of the Mexican Mafia, the notorious prison-based organization that authorities say controls Latino street gangs, demanded that those responsible be killed, according to an indictment unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

The edict, known as a "green light," was aimed at members of the 18th Street gang, who were thought to have killed the baby during a botched attack on a street vendor who'd refused to pay "rent" to conduct business in the gang's territory near MacArthur Park.

Hoping to avoid the Mexican Mafia's wrath, the 18th Streeters decided to take care of the problem themselves, according to authorities. In the days after the baby’s slaying, two gang members lured the shooter to Mexico under the false pretense that he was being hidden from police investigating the murder, the indictment states. Once there, they attempted to strangle him and left "him for dead on the side of a road," according to prosecutors.

the vato who killed the baby was not a 18st gang members, that foo never was a 18str

[mayugastank]

Los Angeles: RICO Indictment Expands Case Against Clique of 18th Street Gang
Posted by StreetGangs.Com Staff on Jul 10th, 2009 and filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Print This Post | Email This Post
California Chronicle
July 10, 2009

Federal and local law enforcement authorities today arrested eight of 39 members and associates of one of the most entrenched “cliques” of the 18th Street Gang after the return of federal criminal charges alleging that the gang operated a racketeering enterprise responsible for the October 2007 attempted murder of a street vendor near MacArthur Park that resulted in the fatal shooting of a 3-week-old infant, a murder of an innocent young man that occurred in 2001, and other crimes.

Two weeks ago, a federal grand jury issued a superseding indictment in a racketeering case that now charges 39 members and associates of the Columbia Lil Cycos (CLCS) set of the 18th Street Gang. In addition to the fatal shooting of the infant, which is also being prosecuted by the District Attorney in Los Angeles, the federal indictment alleges that the gang was responsible for the subsequent kidnaping and attempted murder of the CLCS member who wounded the vendor and killed the child. The superseding indictment also charges three defendants with the 2001 murder of Jose Barajas, whom gang members allegedly mistook for a rival. In addition, the indictment charges a criminal defense attorney with laundering the gang´s illegal proceeds and committing other acts on behalf of, and at the direction of, an imprisoned Mexican Mafia member, identified in the indictment only as “Mexican Mafia #1.”

Today´s operation is the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department. The federal indictment unsealed today supersedes an October 2007 federal indictment that charged 18 defendants with alleged drug trafficking, and a subsequent November 2007 federal indictment that charged a nineteenth defendant. Fifteen of the defendants named in the original federal indictments are charged in this superseding federal indictment, along with an additional 24 defendants who were not previously charged.

The 31-count superseding federal indictment unsealed today charges 39 members and associates of the CLCS with participating in a racketeering conspiracy that involved acts of violence, narcotics distribution, money laundering and violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR). Lead defendant Sergio Pantoja, aka “Tricky,” 33, is described in the indictment as a “Shot Caller” of the CLCS, which is alleged to have been controlled by a Mexican Mafia member currently serving a life-without-parole sentence. The CLCS allegedly used violence and intimidation to control narcotics distribution in an area adjoining MacArthur Park in the Westlake District of Los Angeles. According to the indictment, under Pantoja´s direction, as well as the direction of CLCS Shot Callers who preceded Pantoja, narcotics suppliers and street dealers paid “rent” – typically a percentage of proceeds from the sale of narcotics – in exchange for permission from the CLCS to sell narcotics in the gang´s territory; those who paid rent received the exclusive authorization to sell narcotics in CLCS territory as well as protection from rivals. The indictment also alleges that street vendors operating in CLCS territory were required to pay rent to the gang in order to be allowed to sell their wares near MacArthur Park. According to the indictment, failure or refusal to pay rent and otherwise follow the gang´s rules would result in retribution, including acts of violence.

The indictment alleges that on September 15, 2007, after a street vendor refused to make a nominal rent payment to the CLCS, at the direction of Pantoja, several CLCS members and associates acted together to shoot and seriously injure the vendor. Although the man survived, a 3-week-old infant sitting in a stroller next to the vendor was struck by a bullet and killed.

According to the federal indictment, shortly after the failed attempt to murder the vendor and the resulting fatal shooting of the infant, Pantoja ordered the kidnaping and murder of the shooter to make amends with the Mexican Mafia. 18th Street Gang members thereafter took the shooter to Mexico under the false pretense of hiding him from the police. Once in Mexico, the federal indictment alleges, the shooter was driven to a remote area, where he was strangled, and dumped on the side of a road. Unbeknownst to his would-be killers, the shooter survived the attack.

“Today we are holding this gang accountable for the violence and intimidation it used to bring terror to the citizens living and working within the gang´s territory,” said United States Attorney Thomas P. O´Brien. “The tragic murder of a 3-week-old infant is the result of a rebuffed demand for $50. The citizens of this community deserve better, and we are working with every tool at our disposal to clean the streets of gang activity.”

The defendants arrested today will be making initial court appearances this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

“This investigation is the result of several years of collaboration by agents and their partners with the LAPD and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, to identify the senior leadership of this particular 18th Street gang clique, and to use federal racketeering statutes to target shot callers who, otherwise, would continue to operate with impunity,” said Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI in Los Angeles.

The superseding federal indictment charges criminal defense attorney Isaac Guillen, 48, of West Covina, with regularly transferring thousands of dollars of CLCS rent proceeds to a Mexican Mafia member imprisoned at the federal “Supermax” facility in Florence, Colorado. According to the indictment, from October 2003 until September 2008, Guillen transferred approximately $27,500 into the Mexican Mafia member´s prison account. The indictment also alleges that Guillen and the imprisoned Mexican Mafia Member are partners in several businesses, including a limousine service, a liquor distributor, and a real estate holding corporation.

“We have known for a long time that this particular clique of the 18th Street gang was a criminal enterprise with a reach far beyond any single neighborhood or city,” said Chief William Bratton of the Los Angeles Police Department. “Today is an excellent example of multiple law enforcement agencies working together to impact a criminal street gang with tentacles that cross jurisdictional lines and even prison walls.”

All of the defendants charged in the federal indictment are facing a potential maximum sentence of life imprisonment based on their alleged participation in the CLCS racketeering conspiracy and/or their alleged participation in narcotics distribution within CLCS territory. Each of the defendants alleged to have participated in the September 2007 murder of the three-week old infant, as well as three individuals charged in connection with the July 2001 murder of 22 year old Jose Barajas, face a potential maximum penalty of death.

“This is another example of federal and local cooperation to combat gangs in Los Angeles,” said District Attorney Steve Cooley. “The information obtained as a result of federal investigations has helped us successfully prosecute our cases. Information from our cases – most of them murders – has been helpful to federal prosecutors in putting together the broader racketeering indictments such as the one announced today.”

This case is a result of a multi-year investigation by the FBI, LAPD and investigators with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In addition, substantial assistance was provided during the investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service. During the execution of today’s warrants, assistance was provided by U.S. Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Children & Family Services (DCFS).

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime

[mayugastank]

Ruben "Nite Owl" Castro, 46, a leader of the Mexican Mafia prison gang who authorities said controlled the two cliques of the 18th Street gang targeted in the indictment, the Shatto Park Locos and the Hoover Locos.
Castro allegedly ran the enterprise from the Administrative Maximum facility in Florence, Colo., where he is serving a life term after being convicted on similar gang racketeering charges in 1997.
With the highest level of security in the nation, the Supermax houses Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, shoe-bomber Richard Reid and 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui.
Under constant surveillance, Castro had to use cryptic phone conversations and hidden messages to get his directives to his deputies on the streets, who are described in court papers as "shot callers."
At least two letters seized by the FBI were scrawled in thick pencil marks, which when erased revealed tiny messages written with a fine-point pen.
"We have a couple letters with significant messages to the shot callers on how to direct things," Riordan said.
Castro mostly relayed his messages through his girlfriend, Jesusita Ramirez, 62, who served as an intermediary between him and the street lieutenants, prosecutors said.
Letters from prisoners are supposed to be screened by prison officials. But Castro's hidden messages apparently were able to get out of the prison undetected, officials said.
From the same prison, members of the Aryan Nation gang were able to send orders for killings and other crimes using a complicated system of secret codes, according to testimony at a trial in Orange County earlier this year.
Running Castro's day-to-day operation outside the prison were the shot callers who collected regular "rent" from drug wholesalers and street peddlers, prosecutors allege.
One wholesaler allegedly said that he paid defendant Mervin Nelson Sanchez $1,500 a week to supply dealers in one area.
"Untimely payment of rent to Ruben Castro Organization by a narcotics dealer often resulted in increased rent," according to the indictment, followed by "threatened and actual acts of violence."
Shot callers decided whether the wholesalers and retailers were bringing in enough cash, Riordan said. They told the dealers which wholesalers they had to buy from, and how much per day they had to buy.
When unauthorized dealers moved in, the shot callers gathered weapons to get rid of them, the indictment alleges.
The shot callers didn't have free reign, though, he said; they answered to Castro's girlfriend, Ramirez, who is wanted but still at large.
On one occasion in 2004, according to court documents, she told a shot caller that Castro was angry because drug sales in one neighborhood were down. Castro, she said, believed that the reason was because the shot caller's assistant lived too far from the area, according to court documents.
Much of the estimated half-million dollars a year in proceeds was transferred straight to her, the indictment says, and a small amount went to Castro in prison. Another portion allegedly went to the Mexican Mafia to pay for protection for members of the two 18th Street gang cliques in prison.
Local and federal authorities have been trying for decades to bring down the 18th Street gang, which has about 8,000 members in Los Angeles County alone.
In 2000, federal prosecutors indicted 26 members of the 18th Street clique known as the Columbia Li'l Cycos, which also charged dealers the right to operate.
The group generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits, which it plowed into homes in Burbank and El Monte, a restaurant in South Gate and an auto business in Los Angeles. The case resulted in 26 convictions, Riordan said.
The Los Angeles city attorney's office has obtained three different injunctions against the gang's various cliques. Castro was arrested in 1997 along with other gang leaders in what officials said then was an effort to "cut off the head" of the gang.
But the 18th Street gang has seemed to bounce back each time, often with new recruits.
Based on experience, Riordan said, he expects the latest indictment to put the gang out of action for three years in those neighborhoods. But, he said, other members might eventually fight for control of the area.
In addition to Castro, 10 members and associates of the 18th Street gang were indicted on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges of using threats and violence to control the drug trade.
Both the 18th Street gang and its rival, the Mara Salvatrucha, were born among Central American immigrants in the troubled blocks of apartments west of downtown, and have since grown to tens of thousands of members here, in Central America and, increasingly, across the United States and Mexico.
The U.S. Southern Command, based in Miami, has said the gangs pose one of the biggest threats to security in Central America, and authorities are concerned that the acts of extreme violence seen there — beheadings, tortures, a massacre of 28 people on a bus in Honduras — could begin here.
Though the two gangs mostly are disorganized — with no known leadership — there are signs that they are evolving into something more organized. "In El Salvador, eight different cliques got together and performed a kidnapping extortion recently," the FBI's Robert B. Loosle said.
The indictment is the first time that federal authorities have alleged a conspiracy between two cliques.
Riordan said this type of organization and professionalism generally starts in Los Angeles and spreads.
"We are the cradle," he said.
Posted by Reporters at 15:07
Labels: SuperMax


Read more: http://royalespot.blogspot.com/2008/01/ ... z0f5JbO3yv

[MENACE18]

ive read those over and over, but for the record the vato wasnt a 18, he wasnt from or even a recruitment into the hood, the reason why they might say is to gain pity from the public and start callin 18 child killers

[mayugastank]

ive read those over and over, but for the record the vato wasnt a 18, he wasnt from or even a recruitment into the hood, the reason why they might say is to gain pity from the public and start callin 18 child killers

Seems like both niteowl and puppet controlled different cliques of 18street, both used their old ladys to give out orders how fucking lame!A guy should go to prison and be taken care of but he should never be allowed to run a gang from prison --he cant possibly know whats really going on ........

[MENACE18]

ive read those over and over, but for the record the vato wasnt a 18, he wasnt from or even a recruitment into the hood, the reason why they might say is to gain pity from the public and start callin 18 child killers

Seems like both niteowl and puppet controlled different cliques of 18street, both used their old ladys to give out orders how #%@&#%@ lame!A guy should go to prison and be taken care of but he should never be allowed to run a gang from prison --he cant possibly know whats really going on ........

the only difference is puppets wife fucked over the hood, night owls wife didnt fuck up but she quit doin hood business on her own

[alexalonso]

free all the homies from that infamous WESTSIDE XV3ST COLUMBIA LIL CYCLONES

tricky
hatred
nefty
clumsy
crimes
rascal
bullet
snapper
puppet
stomper
oso
chucky
wyno




and the rest of the BEST homies, and that vato wasnt from 18, the homie nefty told me, homie locked up in pensalvania state prison with other homies, they got that on lock

Puppet is serving a Life without Parole (LWOP) in Florence Coloado and will never see LA again.