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Thursday, December 15, 2022

Operation Scrapbusters Takes Down Mexican Mafia Linked Gang Cell in San Diego

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat


The San Diego Police Department and the FBI arrested seven accused gang members and seized drugs and weapons from a stash house in Encanto, which was the focal point of "Operation Scrapbusters."

Six men and a woman with ties to the Mexican Mafia were taken into custody, accused of selling drugs and staging kidnappings out of a house on Wunderlin Avenue near 68th Street, and using it to store weapons, cash, and drugs. 

More than a dozen weapons, including two explosive devices, were seized from the home, according to local and federal agents.

Pictures of seized items include pistols, shotguns, rifles, knives, a sword, a saw, a bullet-proof vest, a variety of drugs, and $27,000 in cash. Investigators also discovered evidence of kidnappings and extortion, San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said during a Tuesday morning news conference touting the success of the operation.

"We will relentlessly pursue justice against those who terrorize our neighborhoods with gang violence, guns, and the scourge of fentanyl," Randy Grossman, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, said. Six of the defendants were arraigned last week and the seventh is scheduled to be arraigned this Friday.



The gang members operating out of the home were apparently being controlled by a boss far away. "What is disturbing is that the key leader of the Mexican Mafia had his tentacles in this particular criminal organization and was doing it from death row in prison," District Attorney Summer Stephan said. 

However, this is precisely the specialty of the Mexican Mafia or La Eme as they are also known. The prison gang controls much of the Sureno street gang activity and their drug trade in Southern California and other areas.

Mexican Mafia member Ronnie Ayala and his brother Hector in the early 1990s.

Leader Ronnie Ayala

This leader's name is Ronnie Ayala, according to Stephan, and he landed on death row for the 1985 killing of three men in southeastern San Diego. He has been in prison since 1989 alongside his brother Hector. While on Condemned (Death Row) status, he used female facilitators and smuggled in cell phones to help control the outside areas under his control. Many Mexican Mafia members are considered the leaders of their old neighborhood gang areas, collecting taxes on illegal activities, most notably drug dealing.

Ayala went on trial in 1989 for the three shooting deaths at A & Z Auto Repair off 43rd Street in southeastern San Diego. On April 26, 1985, the victims’ hands had been bound behind their backs as Ayala and his brother demanded $10,000. Three were shot to death, while a fourth was able to escape wounded.

In 2015, the US Supreme Court upheld his death penalty conviction for the execution-style slayings of the three men in an auto-shop robbery. The justices split 5-4 on the decision citing differing views on his jury being tainted by the dismissal of all black and Hispanic jurors during the selection process. When the defense objected, the judge heard the prosecutor’s reasons behind closed doors without the defense present, so as not to reveal the trial strategy. In looking at the record available in the case, the court agreed that the prosecution was able to offer reasonable arguments why the jurors were dismissed for reasons other than race.

In an aside opinion, Kennedy took the opportunity to express his concerns with the solitary confinement conditions in which many prisoners like Ayala are held and suggested that he would be open to hearing a case on the issue.

He said that if Ayala is in a typical solitary confinement situation, it is likely he “has been held for all or most of the past 20 years or more in a windowless cell no larger than a typical parking spot for 23 hours a day; and in the one hour when he leaves it, he likely is allowed little or no opportunity for conversation or interaction with anyone.”

Little did Justice Kennedy know, Ayala did not lack the ability to communicate with those on the outside.

41 comments:

  1. First thing they messed up on is the gang name.
    Mexican mafia? You know gringos were anxious to put a stop to that..
    Just learn your his-tory

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How come it's always la EME they never go after nuestra familia or Fresno bulldogs or AB or BG they are supposed to be equal opportunity arrested Not profiling and Russians never get busted it's like they afraid of them or they are paying good.

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    2. @ MY ANONYMOUS 1:11 HAVEN'T U HEARD HOW THEY JUST RECENTLY DID SOME RICO INDIKTMENTS ON THE STATE NUESTRA FAMILIA 🤷🏿‍♂️🤷🏿‍♂️🤷🏿‍♂️🤷🏿‍♂️ N THE PAST 10-12 YEAR'S NUESTRA FAMILIA BEEN GET'N HIT HARD BY THE GOVERNMENT THAT THEY NOW HAVE A FEDERAL NUESTRA FAMILIA N GROWING THANKS 2 SKIP 4 MAKING IT HAPPEN.... LOOK IT UP WHENEVER U HAVE A CHANCE IT'S FUCK'N KRAZY HOW THIS PRISON DUDE'S MAKE SHIT HAPPEN

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    3. I thought you were going to say something on the name of the operation. Scrapbusters they call Sureños scraps as a diss. And they call Nortenos busters as a diss ,😄

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    4. 6:20
      I call the Cholos.. Street Hoodlums.

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  2. South siders are snitches palabra

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    Replies
    1. So true. Thanks for confirming.

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  3. California executes very few of it's death row prisoners. If this guy committed his crimes in Texas, his existence would have been terminated more than 20 years ago.

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    Replies
    1. cAlIFoRniYa eXeCuTeZs v3rY lITtLe3.. blah blah blah sounds like you voted for gascon

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    2. 11:45 What's with your Clown lettering.
      Get ready for school Mijo

      Delete
  4. Nice story SolCalJ. I liked how you threw Ronnie Ayala in there. Most news sites simply say these are the guys that we arrested and these are what the charges are.

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  5. Encanto baby. The place I always dread just having to drive through.

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  6. Seems like the cops didn’t get much

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  7. So that must be where Lemon Grove gets its glocks, meth and yayo from.

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  8. Nice Resume they both have too bad they are going to Rot in there for whacking those three guys and one got away Nice job he probably ID them for trying to recreate the st valentine's day massacre.! It didn't work

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  9. I remember reading about those murders on the news way back then. It was on 43st and National Ave. Next to a tire shop. I was living on 38st and Logan Ave near Food Palace at that time. I may have known one person involved name Beto from Logan Heights who died later on of Heroin overdose.

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  10. La EME control a lot of the prisons in the US, these are just facts. You’ll also find Surenos in Norteno and Bulldog cities but you’ll never find a Northerner or Bulldog barrio south of Bakersfield.

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    Replies
    1. I ran into a Bulldog in CCA in Ohio. That Boy was singing the blues. Miguel A Marquez. He told on Gordo from Fresno and Black from Cleveland ..2019.

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  11. Wow they have such nice manly muscles, grrrr

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thanks again to piece of shit govener Gavin for not doing the peoples will!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Kill ‘em all and hang ‘em high

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  14. Replies
    1. Mijo blood can't go in but blood can come out.

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    2. 11:55 Aaaaaaaaaaa have you ever heard about transfusion? Now you know 👍

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    3. But the sentence is not about transfusions, next you will say vampires.

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    4. 6:51 whats the sentence about than?

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  15. The big players in SD are in City Heights. Wonder why this never comes up. Some people must be looking the other way and using shitty places like Encanto to deflect.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. City Heights is a new wave name. OG name is East San Diego. I was on the 4th floor of the county jail with Ronnie A. in 1980. Then was out on the streets when that happened. There was a third guy involved too. Cucuy. He got life without I think.

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    2. 2:23 Well southeast San Diego ya. The city hella cracked down on gangs though (even preventing them from congregating) so it seems to me a lot drug and gun trafficking crime moved to City Heights. Especially for coke.

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    3. Anon 2:23 PM Cucuy was one of the guys that snitched on Ronnie & Hector,so did Rhino from Otay.

      Delete
  16. Italian mafia still the strongest in the USA

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  17. America's Finest City is b.s.. I moved here years ago to escape crime and gang activity and all I found was gangs, crime, poverty and filthy streets.

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    Replies
    1. 10:19 Which part? And when? Those details matter

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  18. Saw this on Mundos page the other day. There was another bust in Texas not too long ago. From what Mundo said, The Ayala brothers were spared by Governor Newsome and his anti death penalty stance. If you guys care to watch here's the link to more Videos and he talks about the EME and AFO connection too. https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb48S2KL4xFVxMjACWC3XLvApcGp11kei

    ReplyDelete

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