A partner of Leon, Miguel Candido' s apartment was searched in March of 2019 where 5000 pills containing fentanyl, onepound of heroin, over $20,000 in US currency, drug ledgers, scales, and cell phones linking the two to a criminal organization were located. In 2007, 102 members of Florencia 13 were listed in indictments, under the operation, leading to the biggest gang raid in American history at the time, with 96 of the 102 members taken into custody. The jury that convicted Dorado and Fazah also returned guilty verdicts against two other F13 members who were charged in 2013 in a federal racketeering indictment. The gang is now at the center of the killing earlier this month of an off-duty Los Angeles police officer. Dorado then reported back to the incarcerated F13 Gang member who issued the order: Thats a done deal. The court heard in disturbing detail at trial how these Florenica 13 gang members lured the victim into an alley and beat him unconscious, said the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Los Angeles Field Division Special Agent in Charge Eric Harden. In the rules seized by law enforcement, Arturo Castellanos allegedly told his gang that he and his brother have shown you all our love for the barrio by making sure you homies never get taxed or green lighted by no one.. Grisham, the girlfriend of Rios, is described as a gang associate. A California law says yes. Official websites use .gov The indictment unsealed today focuses on how the gang has generated illicit profits through the sale of drugs and firearms, fraud, and extortion. The indictments targeting the Mexican Mafia and the La Familia drug cartel are the result of an investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department; and the Los Angeles High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA)/Southern California Drug Task Force, a federally funded group led by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. An official website of the United States government. Three of the defendants were previously arrested in this case before todays enforcement activities, and eight are fugitives. That night, Fazah, Dorado, and other F13 Gang members lured the victim into an alley and attacked him. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Their tireless efforts, commitment to their agencies, and dedication to their communities have led law enforcement to a victory in the continuing battle against the gangs and drugs that plague our communities.. But Laredo, an alleged member of the Mexican Mafia who has been incarcerated since 2000, was recorded in a call from prison telling an associate on the street that 40% of the money collected from the gangs rackets was owed to the four Mexican Mafia members from Florencia-13, according to an indictment charging him with racketeering. Florencia 13 has a long history of being involved in drug trafficking in Los Angeles, where they have held a leadership . MLS # 1679310 The documents unsealed this week call Arturo Castellanos a Mexican Mafia member and the undisputed leader of the Florencia 13 criminal street gang in south Los Angeles County. Dorado was also involved in the F13 Gangs efforts to smuggle illegal narcotics into local jails. The seven-count indictment which names six members of the Mexican Mafia, three associates of the prison gang, and four people directly linked to the La Familia cartel outlines a venture between the criminal organizations that participants referred to as the Project, and which involved the highest levels of La Familia. Based out of South . Meanwhile, he said, we actually have the deputies to enforce zero tolerance with active gang members.. The note was originally written in tiny script on a small scrap of paper known as a kite, smuggled out of Pelican Bay, recopied and then distributed to street gang members, according to federal prosecutors who are using it as evidence in a major crackdown in Los Angeles. They say conditions at Pelican Bay are unconstitutional and amount to slow torture. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS The suspects were alleged members of Florencia 13, and are facing murder and attempted murder charges.[12]. A separate indictment released in August alleges Mexican Mafia members attempted to form an alliance with operatives from a powerful Mexican drug cartel, with approval from leaders at Pelican Bay. Information and translations of florencia 13 in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. On October 6, 2019, four men, ages 20s to 50s, were killed and five injured at KC Tequila, a Hispanic-themed bar and restaurant in Kansas City, Kansas. Public Information Officer OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Click on text to read a print version of the note. Arturo. In addition, 11 members and associates of the Florencia-13 gang were arrested Wednesday during "Operation Friday the 13th." They face federal racketeering, narcotics and firearms charges,. Various defendants are charged in six other counts in the indictment that allege substantive narcotics-distribution offenses, five of which relate to methamphetamine and one of which concerns marijuana. The investigators have done a magnificent job at thwarting this relationship. The trial further found that the gang was controlled by the Mexican Mafia prison gang. The three men are members of Florencia-13, according to. By then Florencia 13 had bulged to include three dozen cliquesroughly 2,000 members in alland joined 18th Street and the Salvadoran Mara Salvatrucha as some of Southern California's . U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of California, Environmental Crimes and Community Safety, Federal Indictments Target South Los Angeles Street Gang Involved in Drug Trafficking, Extortion and Attempted Murder, Former Wells Fargo Executive Agrees to Plead Guilty to Obstructing Bank Examination Involving the Opening of Millions of Accounts Without Customer Authorization, West Los Angeles Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges for Using Snapchat to Entice Child into Producing Sexually Explicit Videos, Carson Man Sentenced to More Than 18 Years in Federal Prison for Making Sexually Explicit Videos of 15-Year-Old Victim. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS It was among the deadliest acts of violence in modern Kansas history. The sentencing of six Florencia 13 gang members to life in prison appears to bring to a close a prolonged and terrifying spate of violence in the Florence-Firestone district allegedly brought on by orders from a prison gang member in solitary confinement 700 miles away. 156.38.193.218 The LAPD hosted a fundraiser for Arroyos' family Wednesday at the Olympic Division station where the officer was stationed. The three men are members of Florencia-13, according to the FBI. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. It also demands a firm set of rules and a way to impose them on operatives on the streets, often violent and obstreperous gang members. The Florencia 13, South Side Florencia 13 or Florence Gang is an American criminal street gang based in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Mexican-Americans. The defendants then committed an execution-style killing. According to evidence presented at a racketeering trial in 2008, Arturo Castellanos, through a series of letters sent from prison, ordered his gang to attack members of the East Coast Crips, who claim a strip of South Los Angeles east of the 110 freeway. Los Angeles, California 90012. Their trial, which took place in federal court in Santa Ana in 2008, grew from an indictment of 104 Florencia gang members on charges that included racketeering, conspiracy to sell drugs and murder. A liquor store whose supply cases are being robbed of beer, a shopkeeper whose business is being graffitied, a barkeep whose patrons are being harassed, will sometimes offer to pay a Mexican Mafia member for protection, the former gang member said. [9] The conflict was triggered by the theft by East Coast Crips of a large amount of drugs from Florencia 13 members. He also ordered the gang to attack the local Crips gang, whose members are black. The gang also operates casitas, underground casinos hidden inside South Los Angeles homes and apartments, which each generated about $300 a week in taxes for the gang, the indictment says. The Southern California Drug Task Force is comprised of federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the DEA, the ATF, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Pasadena Police Department. SPOKANE, Wash., -Aleandro Leon, age 24, of Pasco, Washington, was sentenced on June 30, 2021, after having pleaded guilty to: being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, conspiracy to provide prohibited objects to an inmate in prison; and inmate in possession of a prohibited object. . Years of violent conflict over that territory with other gangs lent Florencia an identity and reason for being. Running a criminal organization while locked inside one of America's most secure prisons requires imagination, cunning and ruthlessness. Four were already in custody prior to todays arrests and one is a fugitive. The investigation in this case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Huntington Park Police Department, and the Los Angeles Police Department. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher C. Kendall of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Section. The gang appended the 13 to its name in the 1990s, signaling its allegiance to the Mexican Mafia. According to an FBI agents affidavit, one of the defendants has admitted that they were driving around, looking for someone to rob, when Rios spotted Arroyos and remarked, He has a nice chain, lets get it.. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Police Department. Judge Bastian sentenced Leon to 100 months on the firearms offense and a consecutive 60 months on the contraband offense. La Familia Michoacana and it successor, Los Caballeros Templarios (the Knights Templar), is a major drug cartel based in the Mexican state of Michoacn and is responsible for the trafficking of hundreds of thousands of pounds of controlled substances, including methamphetamine, from Mexico into the United States, according to the indictment. In a letter released by inmate advocates, Castellanos denounced the federal investigation as a set-up and described Florencia 13 as his old childhood street gang. He has also questioned why the feds only named him as an unindicted co-conspirator (Castellanos and the secret note were also mentioned in a 2007 indictment against other alleged gang members). View more property details, sales history and Zestimate data on Zillow. [7] They are involved in drug smuggling, murder, assault and robbery. Ciaran McEvoy Rincon was accused of authorizing -- along with others -- the execution of Florencia 13 gang member Johnny Ibarra because he killed a fellow gang member without permission, according to prosecutors. You dont gotta worry about that punk no more.. The Mexican Mafia, whose members are generally senior members of street gangs such as Florencia 13, also exercises control over and directs the narcotics trafficking activities of Latino street gangs across Southern California and in prisons. Its common, authorities say, for members of the gang to have followed an uncle, a father or a grandfather into it. When Leon was arrested for those drug charges, he was unlawfully in possession of a loaded firearm. The notes, he said, were written by Arturo Castellanos in his cell at Pelican Bay State Prison, where he was and still is serving a life sentence for murder. Its ranks are knitted together by blood. Earlier this summer, Castellanos and three other inmates organized a two-month hunger strike over conditions at Pelican Bay, where they and hundreds of other men have been held in special windowless cells, usually alone, for more than a decade. Members of the Latino Florencia 13 gang have left their tag at numerous places along a stretch of Florence Avenue in the Florence area of L.A. County. ), At Willie Nelson 90, country, rock and rap stars pay tribute, but Willie and Trigger steal the show, What GOPs plan for Medicaid work requirements would mean, Column: A centrist, third-party alternative for 2024 is a nice idea but a nightmare in practice, Chinese man who reported on COVID to be released after 3 years. (213) 894-4465. The indictment named 30 members and associates of the F13 gang. LOS ANGELES A coalition of federal, state and local authorities this morning arrested eight defendants named in a federal grand jury indictment that outlines an alliance between the Mexican Mafia prison gang and the La Familia Michoacna drug cartel that sought to protect and expand the cartels drug trafficking activities across the nation. 13 Linked To Mexican Mafia And La Familia Indicted After Investigation Reveals Plot To Join Forces To Expand Drug Cartels Presence In U.S. http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/Pressroom/pr2010/025.html, Former Wells Fargo Executive Agrees to Plead Guilty to Obstructing Bank Examination Involving the Opening of Millions of Accounts Without Customer Authorization, West Los Angeles Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges for Using Snapchat to Entice Child into Producing Sexually Explicit Videos, Carson Man Sentenced to More Than 18 Years in Federal Prison for Making Sexually Explicit Videos of 15-Year-Old Victim. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images), Elected officials took a hands-off approach to public safety: LAPD officer. You can also view a larger version of this document. [7] They are involved in drug smuggling, murder, assault and robbery. "It was important that Castellanos not be let out, because he holds sway over gang members to do things they would otherwise not want to do," Hernandez said. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Six of her spring victories . The investigation into Florencia 13 was led by ATF and included the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Huntington Park Police Department and the Los Angeles Police Department. The indictment that prosecutors brought in 2018 charges that Florencia-13 members discussed collecting taxes from a marijuana shop. Lock They also arrested 25 members and associates of the San Fernando Valley-based Vineland boys. 42-ranked singles player in NCAA Division I Women's Tennis with an overall season record of 22-13. Theres still some concern, and I would even say some fear, but with a little F -- not fear like there was, Pastor Le Grande said. LOS ANGELES - A federal jury late Tuesday convicted three men and one woman from Los Angeles County of conspiring to participate in the racketeering activities of the Florencia 13 criminal street gang (F13 Gang), as well as of related drug trafficking and firearms offenses.. Jose Dorado, 34, Tannous Fazah, 26, Jose Sanchez, 40, all of Huntington Park, and Giselle Casado, 33, of Downey, were . The 2,133 sq. Castellanos ordered gang members to stop rampant infighting; to tax drug dealers in their neighborhoods, as well as prostitutes, fruit vendors and vendors of phony ID cards in nearby Huntington Park; and to funnel the proceeds to him and other mafia members. Market data provided by Factset. He hasnt been on the streets since 1979. The indictment cites as evidence the rules allegedly written by Castellanos from his prison cell that established leadership positions within the F13s territory in the Florence-Firestone area of Los Angeles. Florencia-13 tag on a stop sign on Florence Ave. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7c0660170e4a056a