Eme Member Orders Greenlight On Blacks In Oceanside,CA

[ViciousRidah]

EXCLUSIVE: Mexican Mafia member ordered gangs to target blacks, police say

By BRANDON LOWREY blowrey@nctimes.com | Posted: Saturday, April 14, 2012 6:00 pm

A local leader of the Mexican Mafia prison gang ordered Escondido's rival Latino street gangs to stop fighting among themselves and target black people instead, leading to a surge in such attacks, say gang members and authorities.

According to court testimony last week by Erik Witholt, an Escondido Police Department gang detective, the order focused on "getting blacks out of Escondido."

Witholt didn't name the leader, but federal authorities have said that Rudy Espudo was the Mexican Mafia member who directed street gang activity in inland North County. Espudo was arrested in January and indicted, with 118 other people, for a range of crimes, including racketeering and drug dealing.

Attacks by Latino gang members on black people ---- who, police say, have generally had nothing to do with gang activity ---- increased sharply after the Mexican Mafia's order was handed down, about two years ago, Witholt said.

Gang members and experts reached by the North County Times say the order probably stemmed from turf feuds and long-running rivalries in prison between black and Latino gangs, and are not an indication that a local race war was heating up.

Police say one of the most brazen examples of Latino-on-black violence occurred Feb. 6 in Escondido. A black man, with his girlfriend and her child, was waiting for a pizza in a car at Rose Street and East Valley Parkway when seven Latinos armed with knives surrounded them. Someone stabbed the black man, nearly to death.

A suspect in the stabbing, Ulysses Ocampo, 22, of Escondido eluded police for about a week. Police said the gang member was arrested after hurling racial slurs and attacking a second black man who was moving into an Escondido apartment complex. Before the attack, Ocampo said, "We don't want no n----s in our 'hood," the victim testified.

Serious attacks by Latino gang members against black people have not been limited to Escondido ---- such attacks in the past two years include a fatal stabbing in Carlsbad and a rash of assaults in Oceanside.

In the Carlsbad incident last year, police say Juan Rocha, 21, fatally stabbed Devin Allen, 27, a black man with no known ties to gangs, outside a popular bar. Last week, Rocha was in jail awaiting trial on a murder charge.

Carlsbad police Detective Bryan Hargett testified at a preliminary hearing last year that Rocha belonged to a Carlsbad gang that had committed several racially motivated attacks against blacks, including a 2007 stabbing that led to an attempted-murder conviction.

In Oceanside, black gangs have a strong presence. Federal authorities last year said they broke up a major prostitution ring run by three of Oceanside's mostly black gangs.

Some territories claimed by Latino and black gangs overlap, leading to rivalries.

Last year, five Latino gang members and associates were charged with hate crimes against black men in the Crown Heights neighborhood.

Also last year, several black gang members were charged with murdering two Latino teens who weren't gang-affiliated in Libby Lake Park. Prosecutors said the slayings occurred soon after one of the black gang members was attacked by Latino rivals.

But Latino gangs have battled each other at least as fiercely.

Using the race card

The Mexican Mafia order to unite rival Latino street gangs against a perceived common enemy may have been a commonly used tactic by the prison-based syndicate's leadership to stop infighting and increase profitability, said retired Sgt. Richard Valdemar, who spent much of his career investigating the Mexican Mafia as a gang detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

"Because they can play the race card to motivate their soldiers on the street, that's what they do," he said.

Minor racial tensions turned into a cycle of violence during the Los Angeles riots in 1992, Valdemar said.

Damian "Football" Williams, a young black gang member who famously beat white truck driver Reginald Denny on live television during the riots, similarly attacked drivers of other races. When footage aired of him attacking a Latino man, Latinos began attacking blacks in prison and jail, Valdemar said.

The Mexican Mafia put out an order to kill Williams, and later, to go to war with black gangs, he said. Williams was not killed, and is currently serving a state prison sentence for an unrelated crime.

Mostly Latino gangs that included black members were ordered to purge them from their ranks.

Prison politics

But Mexican Mafia leaders' motivation for stoking racial tensions had little to do with actual racism. Instead, they were based on profitability ---- they wanted to take over drug-dealing operations in South Central Los Angeles, where black gangs thrived on crack dealing, Valdemar said.

"It's all about money and power," he said.

The Mexican Mafia originated in California's prison system, which remains its home turf and the center of its power. Some Mexican Mafia members direct activity from behind bars, and when they get out, they bring their prison rivalries with them.

Prison rivalries are mostly drawn along racial lines, said Michael Ruff, special agent in charge with the California Department of Corrections' Special Service Unit, which investigates prison gangs.

But that doesn't always mean feuds have much to do with racial hatred, he said.

"Most incidents are not racially motivated ---- they're gang-motivated," he said. "It's usually over a drug debt or a disrespect issue or a power play."

That may have been the case in Escondido.

A North County Latino gang member familiar with the order to attack black people in Escondido said it was one of the first commands issued by Espudo, the man accused by federal authorities of being a Mexican Mafia member who directed some local Latino street gangs.

"When he first got out (of prison), that's one of the first things he did," said the gang member, who spoke to the North County Times on condition of anonymity. "He saw how things have changed, from when he went in to when he came out, so he made that 'green light.'" A "green light" is a gang term for permission from the Mexican Mafia to beat or kill someone or a group.

"But he also declared a peace treaty" between the two major Latino street gangs in Escondido, the gang member said. "He basically said he didn't want to see any more violence between those gangs, and to (instead) be racist, basically."

The gang member's account was echoed in federal indictments, in which authorities said Espudo extracted "taxes" from street gangs, and forbade graffiti in San Marcos and Escondido, in order to increase profits and reduce conflict and police attention.

Black gangs from Oceanside and elsewhere had been moving into prostitution in Escondido and nearby cities, the gang member said, a point made by federal and local police.

"It wasn't so much race-based, but when you have that sort of activity, you get more police presence," he said. "And probably because they (the Mexican Mafia-controlled gangs) aren't making a buck off of it, either."

Call staff writer Brandon Lowrey at 760-740-3517 or follow him on Twitter @NCTLowrey.​

[Coup]

Never heard of any Black gangs in Oceanside. Thought that was a wealthy suburb....don't a bunch of San Diego Chargers live there? How far is that from San Diego? Do the Damus and Crips in Daygo beef with the Oceanside gangs?

[MARTINEZ]

you beat me to the punch ^^

i aint never... ever... ever ... ever heard of nothing gang related or otherwise out of Oceanside, CA

.

[DiegoDog]

There are black hoods in O'side. The blacks run most of the prostitution along PCH in downtown.

[ViciousRidah]

There are black hoods in O'side. The blacks run most of the prostitution along PCH in downtown.

Indoor with their program or do they got them working the blade out there?

[Cold Bear]

Met a dude out here in Brooklyn formerly residing in O-side. Black dude. He said where he was at at least it was kinda hood and stuff was going down. My man from SD just tells me it's mad Pacific Islanders over there. I know Junior Seau was living there but despite there being nice homes I believe there is still a street element.

[Coup]

Never knew. Thought that was all Somoans, and wealthy whites...never ever heard of a hood element in that area.

[Lonewolf]

Varrio POSOLE in Oceanside goes back to the 1920s
it is one of the oldest in San Diego County
and the oldest neighborhood gang in Oceanside

[StillNoScript]

Never heard of any Black gangs in Oceanside. Thought that was a wealthy suburb....don't a bunch of San Diego Chargers live there? How far is that from San Diego? Do the Damus and Crips in Daygo beef with the Oceanside gangs?

The part of Oceanside down by the beach is rough. I'm sure there are richer areas where perhaps some pro football players live. Junior Seau did live there when he died, I believe. But the part of Oceanside down by the water looks like a bad area, and looks like it's been that way for some time.

[StillNoScript]

Oceanside: Think Venice, but add a white biker element.

[StillNoScript]

I was reading an LA Times article from 1992 about gangs in the Antelope Valley, and the sheriff was quoted as saying that it was because of the recession that was taking place then. The lack of jobs was giving young men too much time on their hands and they started running with gangs. Now all the police talk about in articles about gangs is people being released from prison and prison gang politics.