Prison Gang Pressured but Not Beaten

Federal prosecutors scored a major victory over the Mexican Mafia this month when a judge sentenced 10 of the prison gang’s soldiers to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

Now authorities face the vexing question of how to continue the crackdown against the group, which is believed to be responsible for more than 700 slayings over four decades--ranging from brutal hits inside prison walls to the murder of an Eastside anti-gang crusader.

Although the crime syndicate has been weakened by the racketeering and conspiracy trial in Los Angeles federal court, prison gang experts and others say little has changed for the Eme (Spanish for the letter M), as the Mexican Mafia is commonly called.

“It’s still business as usual on the streets,” said Ramon “Mundo” Mendoza, a onetime Eme hit man who left the group after he became a government informant. “You have other guys doing the [killings], other guys getting recruited, other illegal activities continuing.”

Prosecutors, however, consider the case a landmark because it resulted in prison terms for 19 Eme members. In addition to the 10 sentenced to life after the six-month trial ended in May, two others were given 32-year terms. Seven others pleaded guilty to lesser charges before the trial began and got varying sentences.

“Those Mexican Mafia members who were operating from within the California prison system will be removed from their power base, and those principals who were on the streets will spend their adult lives in federal prison,” said U.S. Atty. Nora M. Manella. “I can think of few people who deserved these sentences more.”

Yet, some streetwise law enforcement officials wonder if the effort will have a lasting effect. For one thing, they say, other Eme soldiers have stepped in to replace their comrades put away through the case. These members, the officials say, are still carrying on illicit activities--killings, drug dealing, extortion and intimidation--that were targeted during the recent trial.

Second, the investigators say, most of the Eme members sentenced will be sent from California prisons, where the gang is entrenched, to the federal prison system, which declared the Eme a security threat in 1992 because of the problems it posed for authorities there.

“They’ll be welcomed with open arms in federal prisons,” predicted Mendoza, who keeps his whereabouts a secret to avoid reprisals by the gang.

Of the 10 defendants receiving life terms, at least four were shipped out immediately to the maximum-security federal prison in Marion, Ill. Most of the others will be assigned elsewhere.

Two of them, Benjamin “Topo” Peters, a reputed Eme godfather, and Ruben “Tupi” Hernandez, may never get to federal prison because they are already serving life terms for murder in California.

In separate interviews, Manella and Timothy P. McNally, the special agent in charge of the FBI office in Los Angeles, did not directly respond to questions about whether more racketeering cases are planned against the Eme. The prosecutors relied on the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act--or RICO, as it is commonly known--to wage their battle in court.

“We will use every tool in our federal arsenal,” Manella said.

“We’re not going to go away,” added McNally.

But other sources confirm that federal authorities are indeed planning another RICO prosecution against the Mexican Mafia.

Just as the court injunction has become the favored tool to fight the 18th Street gang in Los Angeles, insiders say the RICO law is becoming the Feds’ best weapon against the Eme. Federal prosecutors can use past crimes, already adjudicated in state courts, against defendants in a RICO case to prove that the Eme is a criminal enterprise.

But to get another successful RICO case, prosecutors will most likely need another Ernest “Chuco” Castro.

As the government’s key witness, Castro, 39, a former Eme leader, not only provided vital testimony during 6 1/2 weeks on the stand but also gave authorities the means to secretly videotape Eme meetings and record other conversations. The recordings were instrumental in the convictions.

Until Castro agreed to cooperate with authorities in late 1993, the government’s task force on the Mexican Mafia found it difficult to develop the case, one investigator said. Castro helped turn the tide, said the investigator, who like some others interviewed for this story asked not to be identified publicly.

Castro is now in hiding. The Eme has put a “green light” on him, signifying the gang’s go-ahead to kill someone who breaks the code of silence.

In addition to Castro, McNally said the RICO case’s success was ensured--during more than two years of investigating--by cooperation among the FBI, California penal officials, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and Los Angeles police.

“The short and the long of it is that kind of cooperation wasn’t done 15 or 20 years ago,” he said. “By pulling together, bringing the players together, we combined and had extremely good results.”

Some gang investigators, who take the comments by Manella and McNally with a grain of salt, do acknowledge some changes in Eme activities.

Because of Castro, gang investigators say, drug dealers and others doing the Eme’s bidding these days are low-key when talking about the organization and its plans.

“No one wants to be caught on tape like the defendants were,” one savvy gumshoe explained. “Everything’s on the hush-hush.”

Case Helped to Demystify Group

A key part of the trial’s legacy, in addition to the convictions, is the demystification of the Eme, a group so secretive that its 400 to 600 members deny its very existence. The trial testimony and Times interviews with Eme experts showed that:

* The Eme may be losing some of its influence over local street gangs, which have been fertile ground for new members. For example, gang experts say Latino street gangs are now willing to violate the Mexican Mafia’s ban against drive-by shootings, which it imposed in 1993 amid concerns about unwanted attention.

* The Eme is loosely organized, with no command structure and no one person in charge. During the trial, some of the defendants were shown on government videotapes arguing among themselves over minor issues and violating some of the group’s cardinal rules.

* Most Mexican Mafia members are hardly living in luxury. They have no spacious homes or fancy cars like the nattily dressed Mafia dons of organized crime. The “dons” of the Mexican Mafia, if they are not in prison, are lucky just to make ends meet day to day.

Trial testimony showed that Eme members, who often met in hotel rooms, had trouble at times scraping together enough money to pay their room bills. They might not have had the cash because they needed it to support their own drug habits, authorities say.

On one occasion, the gang came up with only $90 for a mother to visit her son, an Eme heavyweight, at Pelican Bay State Prison, near the Oregon border.

“You might as well call them the ‘Welfare Mafia,’ ” Mendoza said.

The reasons for the decline of the gang’s fortunes, according to experts, can be traced in part to the emergence of aggressive younger members who eschew the time-honored codes valued by the Eme’s founders, veteranos who are now in their 50s and 60s.

“These days, too many of them are youngsters who don’t know anything about honor,” said a gang investigator at Corcoran State Prison. “They just think they do.”

For example, violation of the major Eme tenets, such as bad-mouthing another member or showing cowardice, can mean death. But during the trial, the Eme defendants were seen on videotape “politicking” against others, even threatening to kill someone just for failing to attend a certain meeting.

The Eme also has been hurt by two of its own who turned informants--Mendoza in the early 1980s and Castro. They gave rare insider information that deepened authorities’ understanding of the group’s operations.

One significant change occurring on the streets is the growing resistance by local street gangs to the Eme, experts say.

More gangs, for example, are resisting the Eme’s insistence that they pay “taxes” to it for the privilege of dealing drugs in a certain area. Authorities say the Eme imposed the tax as a way to control the gangs as well as provide protection for those who accept the Eme’s authority. Those who run afoul of the Eme risk being murdered.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that taxing was a form of extortion to strengthen the group’s control over such gangs as 18th Street in South-Central, Hazard in Boyle Heights and Chino Sinners in the Inland Empire.

But gang experts say there is growing evidence that the gangs are ignoring orders to pay taxes. “Some gangs have the attitude that they are in charge of their neighborhood, not the [Mexican] Mafia,” said one gang observer.

On Los Angeles’ Eastside, some are taking the lead of the Maravilla gang, which historically has opposed the Eme’s taxing, the expert added.

Mendoza, the former Eme hit man, said the gang’s taxing practice could backfire.

“In my days as a Mexican Mafia member, there were subtle ways of tapping into the gangs we had to deal with, to show them respect,” Mendoza said. “You don’t ride roughshod over them and not expect some kind of resentment.”

Another sign that the Eme’s grip on local gangs is loosening is the increasing number of drive-by shootings involving Latino gang members. The shootings are becoming more prevalent in South-Central Los Angeles, where the Eme has ties to several street gangs.

In 1993, the Eme told Latino street gangs to end the drive-bys, but decreed that disputes could still be settled if the attacker got out of his car, walked up to his intended victim and fired to make sure the right person was hit. Eme leaders apparently feared that public outrage stemming from wanton shootings of innocent victims would bring law enforcement pressure.

Fear of Eme’s Clout Reportedly Waning

These days, gang investigators suggest that more street gangs are willing to challenge the Eme’s authority. An investigator quoted one gang member as saying, “If they want to put a ‘green light’ on me and kill me for disobeying them, let them. But they have to catch me first.”

There is one thing about the Mexican Mafia that hasn’t changed. Although it has killed very few “civilians,” its murderous reach is such that few people who know about the Eme discuss it publicly. Many grizzled law enforcement experts know better than to be quoted by name about it.

Actor Edward James Olmos, who made a 1992 film about the Mexican Mafia, “American Me,” declined to speak about the Eme’s displeasure with his movie or the gang’s alleged extortion attempts against him. Even though his name came up during the trial, he was never called to court. Some say he refused to testify.

Two Eme members who worked on the film as unpaid advisors were slain for angering fellow gangsters over other issues, according to testimony at the trial. A third film advisor, anti-gang activist Ana Lizarraga, was killed in her Boyle Heights driveway because she told authorities about Eme activities, trial testimony indicated.

Of the 12 people on the case’s jury, 11 do not want to talk publicly, fearing retaliation.

“They’re afraid,” says Gary McDonald, 37, the only juror who agreed to talk to The Times after the verdicts. “We have a civic responsibility to show that the system works. And in this case, it did work.” McDonald, a Lawndale planning commissioner, thinks the other jurors should speak out. Unlike many others interviewed, he made it a point to say he wanted his name published.

He said: “Dirty politicians scare me a lot more than the Mexican Mafia.”

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How They Talk

In the criminal subculture of the Mexican Mafia, members have developed their own lingo. They may use either English or Spanish to describe, for example, a person’s standing in the group or to order a hit. Some terms are also used by Los Angeles’ Latino street gangs. Here is a sampling of “Eme-speak”:

Blood in, blood out: As a type of initiation, an individual becomes a Mexican Mafia member by committing a violent crime. Once in, no one can voluntarily leave the group. If a member tries to leave or is caught violating a Mexican Mafia rule, he is supposed to be killed.

Camarada: An associate of the group who is not yet a full-fledged member.

Carnal: Spanish slang for brother or buddy, it is used by Mexican Mafia members to refer to each other.

Eme: The Mexican Mafia’s common nickname. Eme (em-may) is the Spanish pronunciation for the letter M. Members use the nickname because they are never supposed to utter the words “Mexican Mafia.”

Feria: Spanish slang for money.

Green light: A go-ahead for a person to be killed.

In the car: A member in good standing.

In the hat: A person to be executed.

Kite: A secret message or note, often containing orders to carry out a green light, that is passed to Eme members either inside prison or on the outside.

Lista: A person on this list has been targeted to be killed.

Rata: A snitch or stoolie.

Red light: This removes a green light.

Touch-up light: An order that a person be beat up but not killed.

Veterano: A veteran member of the Eme or of a street gang.