LA Mexican Mafia Leader Michael "Mosca" Torres Stabbed to Death in California Prison

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Michael "Mosca" Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who oversaw gangs in the San Fernando Valley and controlled drug and extortion rackets in the Los Angeles County jails, was stabbed to death in prison Thursday, authorities said.

Torres, 59, was attacked at 9:23 AM at California State Prison, Sacramento, (also known as 'New Folsom') where he was serving 133 years to life for attempted murder, conspiracy, weapons offenses, and witness tampering. He was pronounced dead at 10:30 AM.

Prison officials identified the assailants as Ray "Cisco" Martinez, 49, and Juan Angel Martinez, 47. The men, who are not related, are both serving life in prison for murder and other crimes. Ray Martinez is a Mexican Mafia member according to law enforcement sources.

It’s unclear why Torres was killed, but he made many enemies in his climb from the streets of San Fernando to presiding over the largest county jail complex in the country.  “The only game is greed,” a gang member told prosecutors in 2005, predicting that Torres would one day be killed in prison. “They step on each other’s face to get to the top.”

The Two Killers

Ray "Cisco" Martinez

Ray Martinez, also known as "Cisco," is a Mexican Mafia member. He began his life sentence, without the possibility of parole in 1996. He was imprisoned for first-degree murder and second-degree robbery, with enhancements for the use of a firearm. He was a member of MS-13 prior to becoming a member in the Mexican Mafia. 

While incarcerated, on June 11, 2021, he was sentenced to another 22 years for assault by a prisoner with a weapon or force likely to cause great bodily injury and possession or manufacturing of a weapon by a prisoner as a second striker. He also received an enhancement for having a prior felony conviction. 

Juan Angel Martinez

Juan Angel Martinez, (not related) began his stay at New Folson in 1993, serving life with the possibility of parole for attempted first-degree murder.

While incarcerated, on April 7, 1997, Martinez was sentenced to another 4 years for possession or manufacturing of a deadly weapon by a prisoner.

Also while incarcerated, on August 30, 2001, Martinez was sentenced to another 27 years, and 4 months for attempted second-degree murder and assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer or fireman, both as a second-striker. He also received an enhancement for inflicting great bodily injury.

While the CDCR did not mention if Juan was also a Mexican Mafia member, he has a large visible '13', for the letter M, tattooed on his neck, signifying his ties to Sureño gangs that show support La eMe. Being that "Mosca" was a long-time, ranking member of La Eme, his killers would have likely been fellow members. According to Mexican Mafia dropout Rene "Boxer" Enriquez's book, The Black Hand, only a 'fellow carnal' can kill a member of La eMe.

Mosca's Mexican Mafia Heritage

Originally from the San Fer gang, Torres was born in 1964. In 1982 he was imprisoned on charges of Voluntary Manslaughter. In 1991, CDCR listed him as an eMe associate. In 1994, upon his transfer to Pelican Bay State Prison, "Mosca" was validated as a member of the Mexican Mafia. He had been initially sponsored by one of its first founders, Luis “Huero Buff” Flores, a law enforcement official testified in 2004.

After serving 16 years for manslaughter, with additional time for gang involvement in prison. Torres was released. He then became the Mexican Mafia’s “sanctioned tax collector” in the San Fernando Valley, a prosecutor wrote in a bail motion.

“Mosca has a lot of juice,” a witness told prosecutors. “Mosca’s got the whole valley. That’s all him. So every neighborhood in the valley pretty much pays him.”

Diablo, Smokey & Ghost 

A gang member Joe "Smokey" Neria had told Torres that David “Diablo” Mendoza had been shaking down drug dealers and prostitutes by claiming to be a Mexican Mafia member. The day prior, Smokey and Diablo had gotten into a fistfight over his parents' Mercedes Benz being vandalized and not being returned.

On June 12, 2003, Torres knocked on the door of an apartment in North Hills. He told the man who answered, Rodrigo “Ghost” Reyes, that he was looking for "Diablo," according to evidence presented at his trial. As Mendoza approached the doorway, Torres asked if he was a “Carnal,” a term for a Mexican Mafia member. Mendoza lifted up his shirt to display his tattoos, and said "Yeah," Torres then shot him in the chest. Mendoza said, “These motherfuckers just shot me.” He sat on the couch, holding his chest.

A female witness, Maria Salazar, who was sleeping off a crack cocaine binge at the apartment, testified that she saw two skinny men running from the apartment following the shooting. She fled to call 911, and a few minutes afterward, went around the corner to “score” some drugs, she saw "Smokey" and he said he knew about the shooting. 

Later that night, two of Torres’ underlings kidnapped "Smokey." They beat him, strangled him with a rope, and stabbed him with a screwdriver, but he managed to fight off his attackers and flee. 

When Torres was arrested that year, detectives searched his mother’s beige stucco home in San Fernando, finding bundles of cash in a crawl space and an additional $6,000 inside a coffee pot, according to a search warrant.

They also found a list of dozens of books that Torres had apparently planned on purchasing. The reading list included the “complete uncensored” edition of the “Anarchist’s Cookbook,” “Gray’s Anatomy” and “Get Anyone to Do Anything and Never Feel Powerless Again.”

Ploy to Remain in LA County Jail

Torres, who had a fifth-grade education, acted as his own lawyer. A witness told prosecutors that Torres was representing himself to prolong his stay in Men’s Central Jail, where he was collecting a tax on all drug sales. “Mosca doesn’t want to leave the county jail,” the witness said, according to court records. “I don’t know if you guys understand this, but Mosca gets a very large amount of money being put in that county jail.”

Witness Intimidation

"Smokey," in custody on an unrelated charge, was visited by a woman, Christina Davalos, who held up a note to the glass partition in the visiting room. If he talked to the police, the message said, “I’ll kill you and your family just to let you know not to fuck with the Eme.” Smokey told prosecutors he believed Torres had written the note. Smokey then learned he was on the "green light list" to be killed and cooperated. He was later granted immunity and testified about the shooting.

"Diablo" Mendoza, having survived the shooting, initially, said he did not know who had shot him in the chest. Later, in 2005, he testified that "Smokey," not Torres, had shot him.  Prosecutors believed his testimony was due to Mexican Mafia threats made towards Mendoza. He also gave testimony that contradicted what was said by other witnesses.

 
Mendoza admitted having misrepresented himself as being part of the Mexican Mafia to tax people for money and drugs that he would use for himself. He also admitted there were at least two male Hispanics standing in front of the apartment door just before the shooting.

A year after the trial, in 2008, Mendoza was gunned down in North Hills by a still-unidentified person.

Torres was convicted of attempted murder, threatening witnesses, and other crimes including a gang enhancement and his third strike offense. He was sentenced to prison for 133 years to life. He began his stay at the New Folsom prison in December 2007.

Federal Indictment with Aryan Brotherhood

Torres was under a 2019 indictment in federal court at the time of his death, charged as the sole Mexican Mafia member for conspiring with the Aryan Brotherhood to traffic heroin as part of a large case targeting the Californian Aryan Brotherhood leadership. The case involved Aryan Brotherhood members such as Ronald "Renegade" Yandell, William "Willie from Norco" Sylvester, Daniel "Danny" Troxell, and Travis Burhop on federal racketeering charges including drug trafficking and murders as predicate acts. 

The investigation had started in 2014, targeting members of the Vallejo-based gang Family Affiliated Irish Mafia (FAIM). Heroin buys by an undercover DEA Agent from female FAIM member Jeanna Quesenberry revealed that she was communicating directly with AB member Ronald "Renegade" Yandall for trafficking heroin and meth.

Authorities obtained a warrant to tap Yandell’s contraband phone in the summer of 2016, and say they recorded upward of 1,800 calls, providing evidence about murder plots, heroin and meth trafficking, and directing other crimes and the gang's business.

Michael "Mosca" Torres was charged with Conspiracy to Distribute Heroin, it was noted he was part of the 'AB/Mexican Mafia Alliance' in the indictment. Yandell and Travis Burhop, who was incarcerated in Calpatria State Prison, had been intercepted on smuggled-in cell phones saying that the heroin from "Mosca for 600" was "the shit". Meaning that Torres had coordinated the sale of an ounce of heroin to the organization for $600.

Matt "Cyco" Hall, a PEN1 gang member, died by suicide in his cell.

Further conversations revealed that Orange County PEN1 (Public Enemy Number One) gang member, and at that time, a potential AB member, Matt "Cyco" Hall managed street distribution and sent money back up to the AB members. Money had been paid either by PO Box, money order, or Paypal. Hall became a fugitive following the indictment and hanged himself in his prison cell after being arrested in Costa Rica.

Yandell had been looking to further purchase heroin from Mosca and keep buying larger quantities. The taps disclosed that Yandell sought to buy larger quantities at heavier discounts and had told Jeanna they would eventually become "The Cartel." 

Yandell directed Jeanna that they could get the $100 per ounce discount if her customer (the undercover DEA Agent) would purchase over 9 ounces of "black" heroin twice a month. 

In August 2016, Sylvester was caught with contraband and shortly after, Yandell called Burhop to have money orders sent and held for Sylvester as a result. He also called a man, believed to be "Mosca" telling him about it and that they should talk in person at Folsom prison days later about the issues to avoid using their cellphones. Yandell spoke with Mosca, looking to coordinate the purchase of the kilo for $24,000. Mosca said the price would be $25,000, but was reminded by Yandell that Sylvester had mentioned the price was told to him by Mosca to be between $22,000 and $24,000.

Yandell told Jeanna the fact that Mosca had "an unlimited supply" of heroin and they looked to purchase kilograms at a further discount for $20,000, especially as the quality of previous heroin from Torres had been low. Torres himself questioned the high-quality claim from his supplier and that he would look to get high-quality heroin provided at a lower cost to make up for it and provide three ounces free.

Authorities seized heroin connected to Mosca from a Burhop-linked stash house in Fontana, California. 

Yandell and Sylvester.

Yandell was charged as a leader of the Yandell-Sylvester DTO (Drug Trafficking Organization) along with his Folsom cellmate, fellow AB member William "Willie from Norco" Sylvester. The ring was caught with 43 cell phones.

Yandell became a member of the Federal Aryan Brotherhood program while serving a 10-year federal prison sentence for meth trafficking in the 1990s. Shortly after his 2001 prison release, he committed a double homicide in Costa County, California, and was sentenced to life in California state prison in 2004. His status grew quickly in the California prison system, having been part of the federal system. 

He eventually became part of the AB's Three-Man Commission, along with Daniel Troxell, and Edgar "The Snail" Hevle. Federal prosecutors use the RICO act as a common tactic against high-ranking prison gang members, many imprisoned for life in state prisons. The goal is to remove them from their connections, and gang base in state prison systems, spreading their influence into the federal prison system. The prison gangs grew throughout California in a similar fashion after CDCR authorities transferred gang leaders to different prisons. 

Sylvester zip-tied following his killing of fellow inmate Ronald Richardson in 2011.

Sylvester had gained membership to 'The Brand' in 2011 following his killing of Folsom inmate Ronald Richardson in their small exercise yard. Richardson was a member of the skinhead gang USAS (United Society of Aryan Skinheads). The USAS had defied AB member leadership and were actively attempting to form an alliance of skinhead prison gangs that could rival the Aryan Brotherhood as an independent white gang and remove their base of power in various California prisons. AB members were given the green light and expected to attack any USAS and allied gang members.

Travis Burhop had been distributing drugs in Calipatria prison, more effectively than the Mexicans in the same prison. Yandell told him that killing any white inmate that bought drugs from another race would keep people in line. Burhop said that Mexican inmates owed him money for drugs.

Donald "Popeye" Mazza being baptized.

Donald "Popeye" Mazza, the founder of the PEN1 skinhead gang, and an Aryan Brotherhood member, was also charged in the RICO case of conspiring to murder AB member Michael "Thumper" Trippe. He was arrested in 2019 and released pending trial largely due to "Thumper" writing a letter stating he didn't believe Mazza intended to carry out the conspiracy and Mazza converting to Christianity. Mazza eventually pleaded guilty and admitted his role and gang membership in 2022. He disappeared from the prison registry in September 2021. 

Travis Burhop's name also was removed from the prison registry at the same time. He too pleaded guilty in 2022, admitting that his "heart wasn't in the murder plot" targeting another AB member James Mickey. In both agreements, federal prosecutors gave Burhop and Mazza an excuse: that they agreed to aid and abet murders because they were scared of being next on the chopping block, but they really didn’t want to. Six people total in the federal indictment pleaded guilty.

Following their cooperation, additional charges were added last year and the trial had initially been scheduled to begin in March 2023 and was further delayed after various motions were filed and California prosecutors dropped state murder charges against two defendants citing the lengthy delays in the federal trial on the same charges were wasting local court resources and money.  The trial was postponed until early 2024. And now, especially with the death of Torres, the trial may be even further delayed.

LA County Jail & Street Taxes

In 2016, Torres seized control of the Los Angeles County jail system from his Folsom prison cell, according to evidence presented in prosecutions of his lieutenants. This was following a power struggle between various Mexican Mafia lieutenants who ran the LA jails for Mexican Mafia member Eulalio "Lalo" Martinez after he died of a heroin overdose in 2013. while imprisoned at Pelican Bay. Torres had controlled the LA County Men's Central Jail prior to Martinez when Mosca was housed there from 2003-2007 during his attempted murder trial. As Torres went to prison in 2007, Martinez was set to be released from Pelican Bay but was arrested for his involvement in a 1998 murder of a man that Martinez believed was involved in the death of his brother and was held in LA County Jail.

"Mosca" oversaw the Mexican Mafia’s two main LA jail rackets. One was “the kitty,” a pot of commissary items collected from Latino inmates and then sold. The other was the 33% tax imposed on all drug sales. A micromanager, Torres would call his underlings using contraband cellphones and demand an accounting of all the money being made and the names of everyone handling it.

Torres distributed the Men’s Central Jail proceeds among all Mexican Mafia members, his lieutenant told authorities in 2017. And splitting the money from "Wayside," the jail complex in Castaic, California, between himself and another Mexican Mafia member, Jose “Joker” Gonzalez. The lieutenant said he collected $12,000 a week from the jails on Torres’ behalf.

Outside the jails, Torres taxed gangs and drug dealers in the San Fernando and Antelope Valleys, investing the cash in legitimate businesses and real estate, according to gang members who worked under him.

Torres Asked for Transfer to Gen Pop

Torres was initially housed in administrative segregation but served as his own attorney and wrote several handwritten motions demanding that he be placed back into the general population, court records show. One such motion, filed in December 2020, says his restrictive housing impaired his ability to mount an effective defense and the windowless cell caused him to suffer from claustrophobia.

“I believe the government colluded with its agents CDCR to use the pretext of an alleged investigation to keep me in ad-seg,” Torres wrote.

Federal prosecutors countered the motion, arguing that Torres was a danger to others, and wrote in a lawsuit that he was caught with a handcuff key during a cell search. Prosecutors also said he was caught with a note to another inmate, “Lee,” discussing heroin sales and an apparent dispute over money.

Sources LA Times, CDCR, DOJ, Times Herald, LA Times, LA Times, World Nation News, Red Bluff Daily News, DOJ, Mercury News, Bharat Express, Casetext