The government may own the jails, but they sure do not run them, at least according to one report out of Associated Press.
“The Los Angeles County jails are run by the sheriff, but the Mexican Mafia wields the power in the underworld behind bars,” announces the AP report. “The organization made up of leaders from various Latino gangs operated like an illegal government, collecting ‘taxes’ on smuggled drugs, ordering hits on people who didn’t follow their rules and even calling the shots on street crimes, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.”
The government may own the jails, but they sure do not run them, at least according to one report out of Associated Press.
Federal prosecutors dealt the group a serious blow this week by charging 83 members and associates of the gang with a litany of federal racketeering conspiracies, such as alleged drug dealing, extortion, violent assaults and even murders.
“We just delivered a blow to a cold-blooded prison gang and their associates,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said during a news conference.
The suspects will now be held in a federal facility while those in custody will be moved to state prisons. While some officials have celebrated the move, others remain cautious, fearing that more gang members will rise up to take the place of those who have left a vacant seat.
“There will be new leaders, that’s kinda how the whole system works. It’s hierarchical,” said Sheriff Jim McDonnell. “When one goes to jail or passes away then someone else backfills their spot just like any multilevel organization.”
This “gang of gangs” began in the 1950’s as an organization of imprisoned Latino street gang leaders who formed their own hierarchy of criminal activity within the prison system. It started out in a juvenile jail and grew into “an international criminal organization that has controlled smuggling, drug sales and extortion inside the nation’s largest jail system.”
The indictment on Wednesday accused this “Mexican Mafia” of becoming “their own entity or enterprise and effectively function as an illegal government.”
Even while in prison, the gangs could control their gangs by using wives, girlfriends and lawyers to get messages out onto the street. Sometimes, gang members would even get arrested for petty crimes so they could smuggle contraband inside only to be released several days later. More from AP:
Because the Mexican Mafia controlled drug trafficking in the jails, they got the first shot to sell their supply of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin or marijuana, prosecutors said. Other groups had to wait and give a third of their contraband to the Mexican Mafia leadership.
The fee, known as a “thirds” tax, gave the name “Operation Dirty Thirds” to the investigation that led to the indictments and arrest of 32 people Wednesday. Another 35 defendants were in custody and 16 were fugitives.
The gang enriched itself through drug sales, taxes on drugs and even collected a share of purchases on candy bars, deodorant and other items at the jail commissary, the indictment said, adding that the gang was able to exert control by threatening and carrying out violence if people didn’t pay up or follow the rules.
The gang members were accused of committing vicious beatings, stabbings, kidnappings and murders in retaliation, Hanna said.
These indictments come on the heels of President Trump stepping up his rhetoric against illegal gang activity, especially from notorious groups like MS-13