Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Mexican Mafia Busted for Running Crime in LA County Jails
Bill McEwen updated website photo 2024
By Bill McEwen, News Director
Published 7 years ago on
May 24, 2018

Share

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County jails are run by the sheriff, but the Mexican Mafia wielded the power in the underworld behind bars.
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.

One of the group’s facilitators was attorney Gabriel Zendejas-Chavez, who was able to carry messages to the gang members while operating under the shield of attorney-client privilege, the indictment said. He is also accused of enabling a plot to extort $100,000 from the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang.
Their clout was diminished as 83 members and associates were charged in a pair of sweeping federal racketeering conspiracies that 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 so-called “gang of gangs” — an organization of imprisoned Latino street gang leaders who control operations inside and outside California prisons and jails — started in the 1950s at a juvenile jail and grew to an international criminal organization that has controlled smuggling, drug sales and extortion inside the nation’s largest jail system.
“These Mexican Mafia members and associates, working together to control criminal activity within (LA County jails), have become their own entity or enterprise and effectively function as an illegal government,” an indictment said.

Gang Controls Street Crime From Jail

The gang was also able to control street crime by using wives, girlfriends and lawyers to help relay orders to be carried out by members who were not incarcerated, an indictment said.
In some instances, gang members would deliberately get arrested on low-level charges so they could smuggle drugs into the jail and be released days later.
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.

Gang Taxes Jail Drugs Sells

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.

Alleged Crimes Took Place 2012-16

The indictment alleges crimes between 2012 and 2016, when a grand jury was convened and before President Donald Trump took office.
Trump has focused on gang violence but has singled out MS-13, pointing to the gang’s gruesome crimes in a push for stronger immigration policies.
While MS-13 is associated with the Mexican Mafia, the majority of the crimes listed in the indictments Wednesday are alleged to have been committed by members affiliated with other street gangs.
The jail indictment said Jose Landa-Rodriguez and two now-deceased members of the Mexican Mafia controlled operations in the jail between 2012 and 2016.
Landa-Rodriquez, 55, is accused of sanctioning murders, assaults and the kidnapping and planned murder of a relative of a gang member who defied him, prosecutors said.
Landa-Rodriguez is not a U.S. citizen, though nearly all of the other defendants charged in the indictment are citizens, Hanna said.
A second higher-up, Luis Vega, 33, ordered a murder and directed assaults against those who showed disrespect or didn’t obey rules, the indictment said.

Suspects Will Be Held in Federal Prisons

In an effort to disrupt the gang’s stronghold, the suspects will be held in federal facilities, and those already in custody in state prisons will be moved, authorities said.
Sheriff Jim McDonnell acknowledged that others will follow in their wake, as leadership in the gang that operates in most prisons and jails in the state is always changing.
“There will be new leaders, that’s kinda how the whole system works. It’s hierarchical,” McDonnell said. “When one goes to jail or passes away then someone else backfills their spot just like any multilevel organization.”
One of the group’s facilitators was attorney Gabriel Zendejas-Chavez, who was able to carry messages to the gang members while operating under the shield of attorney-client privilege, the indictment said. He is also accused of enabling a plot to extort $100,000 from the Mongols outlaw motorcycle gang.
Zendejas-Chavez was arrested Wednesday. A woman who answered the phone at his office was unaware of the arrest and didn’t comment.

DON'T MISS

Newsom Signs $50M Plan to Battle Trump Policies, Support Immigrants

DON'T MISS

Fresno Students Entering the Work World Need Your Help to ‘Dress the Part’

DON'T MISS

Hanford Shooting Leaves One Dead, Another in Critical Condition

DON'T MISS

Rabies Detected in Fresno, Reedley. Fresno County Urges Caution Around Wild, Stray Animals

DON'T MISS

Plane Located That Matches the One That Went Missing in Alaska With 10 Aboard; 3 Bodies Found

DON'T MISS

Trump Says He’s Revoking Biden’s Security Clearance in Payback Move

DON'T MISS

Fresno Police Seek Public’s Help in Locating Missing 75-Year-Old Man

DON'T MISS

Fresno Students Walk Out of Class to Protest Deportations

DON'T MISS

State Department Lays out Plans for $7 Billion-Plus Arms Sale to Israel

DON'T MISS

Donation to Food Bank to Provide 1.3M Meals to Western Fresno County

UP NEXT

Plane Located That Matches the One That Went Missing in Alaska With 10 Aboard; 3 Bodies Found

UP NEXT

Alaska Legislature Asks Trump to Retain Denali’s Name

UP NEXT

Flu Season in the US Is the Most Intense It’s Been in at Least 15 Years

UP NEXT

Search Underway Along Alaska’s Western Coast for Plane Carrying 10 People

UP NEXT

California’s EV Sales Stall. So What Happens to Landmark Mandate?

UP NEXT

State Farm Asks for ‘Emergency’ Insurance Rate Increases After LA Fires

UP NEXT

Lawmakers Propose $175 Million in New CalFire Funding

UP NEXT

FBI Agents Who ‘Simply Followed Orders’ in Jan. 6 Probes Won’t Be Fired, a Justice Official Says

UP NEXT

Rob Bonta Tells Politico That He’s Not Running for CA Governor

UP NEXT

LA Neighbors Have Vastly Different Post-Wildfire Rebuilding Options Due to Insurance Crisis

Bill McEwen,
News Director
Bill McEwen is news director and columnist for GV Wire. He joined GV Wire in August 2017 after 37 years at The Fresno Bee. With The Bee, he served as Opinion Editor, City Hall reporter, Metro columnist, sports columnist and sports editor through the years. His work has been frequently honored by the California Newspapers Publishers Association, including authoring first-place editorials in 2015 and 2016. Bill and his wife, Karen, are proud parents of two adult sons, and they have two grandsons. You can contact Bill at 559-492-4031 or at Send an Email

Rabies Detected in Fresno, Reedley. Fresno County Urges Caution Around Wild, Stray Animals

3 hours ago

Plane Located That Matches the One That Went Missing in Alaska With 10 Aboard; 3 Bodies Found

3 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Revoking Biden’s Security Clearance in Payback Move

3 hours ago

Fresno Police Seek Public’s Help in Locating Missing 75-Year-Old Man

3 hours ago

Fresno Students Walk Out of Class to Protest Deportations

3 hours ago

State Department Lays out Plans for $7 Billion-Plus Arms Sale to Israel

4 hours ago

Donation to Food Bank to Provide 1.3M Meals to Western Fresno County

4 hours ago

Fresno Mission Opens Second Thrift Store Supporting Homeless, Recovering Addicts

4 hours ago

Judge Blocks Trump From Placing 2,200 USAID Workers on Paid Leave

5 hours ago

Alaska Legislature Asks Trump to Retain Denali’s Name

5 hours ago

Newsom Signs $50M Plan to Battle Trump Policies, Support Immigrants

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed laws Friday setting aside $50 million to help the state protect its policies from c...

2 hours ago

FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom waits for President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to step off Air Force One upon their arrival at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Jan. 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
2 hours ago

Newsom Signs $50M Plan to Battle Trump Policies, Support Immigrants

2 hours ago

Fresno Students Entering the Work World Need Your Help to ‘Dress the Part’

Hanford police arrested a suspect in a fatal shooting outside an In-N-Out, believed to be linked to an illegal drug transaction. (Hanford PD)
2 hours ago

Hanford Shooting Leaves One Dead, Another in Critical Condition

3 hours ago

Rabies Detected in Fresno, Reedley. Fresno County Urges Caution Around Wild, Stray Animals

Ice is visible in the Bering Sea Jan. 22, 2020, as seen from a small plane airplane near the western Alaska coast. (AP File)
3 hours ago

Plane Located That Matches the One That Went Missing in Alaska With 10 Aboard; 3 Bodies Found

President Donald Trump smiles as he arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Fla., Friday, Feb. 7, 2025. (AP/Ben Curtis)
3 hours ago

Trump Says He’s Revoking Biden’s Security Clearance in Payback Move

Fresno police are searching for Tommy Savala, 75, who was last seen Thursday morning near Simpson Avenue and North Fresno Street. (Fresno PD)
3 hours ago

Fresno Police Seek Public’s Help in Locating Missing 75-Year-Old Man

McLane and Duncan Polytechnical high school students walked out Friday, Feb. 7, 2025, to protest deportations, marching down Cedar Avenue. (GV Wire/Eric Martinez)
3 hours ago

Fresno Students Walk Out of Class to Protest Deportations

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend