FBI Operation Gangsta's Paradise Arrests 43 Tied to Orange County Mexican Mafia Leaders

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

“This morning, we executed operation “Gangsters Paradise. We’ve indicted forty members and associates of the Mexican Mafia, who is the most powerful, prolific gang that operates out of state prisons,” said L.A.’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli.

“They control and operate all the Hispanic street gangs out in the neighborhoods,” he added. Federal agents working with local police arrested 43 suspects in all, confiscated firearms and seized illegal drugs, conducting 30 raids mostly in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Lake Elsinore and Lakewood, California.

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Mexican Mafia Figure “Fox” Landa Connected LFM to Sureño Gangs, Accepts Plea Deal For Deportation

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Jose Landa-Rodriguez, known as "Fox," a reputed member of the Mexican Mafia, has struck a plea deal, He has been imprisoned in the US since 1998 and has faced numerous cases since then including running a drug trafficking and extortion ring from within prison.

Facing charges from 2011 to 2018, including a murder plot and orchestrating a drug cartel alliance, he pled guilty to racketeering. As part of the plea deal, he will serve just two more years in prison before his deportation to Mexico. 

Allegations against him included masterminding schemes within Los Angeles County jails and attempting to establish a drug pipeline with La Familia Michoacana. Recorded prison calls and testimony revealed his involvement in overseeing extortion and drug sales operations, including a scheme named Operation Dirty Thirds, which extorted funds from more than half of the Hispanic inmate population in California.

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Mexican Mafia Shot Caller "Pomona Mike" Lerma Found Guilty on Federal RICO, Drug & Murder Charges

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Four Pomona gang members and Mexican Mafia associates were found guilty by a jury today of a series of racketeering-related crimes. All the defendants have been in federal custody since 2018. 

Their transfer to federal custody only allowed for an expansion into controlling gang taxes and drug smuggling into the federal Metropolitan Detention Center in LA. They were also responsible for the murder of a federal inmate at the MDC in downtown Los Angeles in June 2020...over a drug debt. 

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LA Sheriff Deputy Charged in County Jail Mexican Mafia Smuggling Network

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy is among 18 people indicted by a grand jury this week as part of a sophisticated drug smuggling operation involving Mexican Mafia associates inside the LA County jail system.

Half of those indicted are currently incarcerated. Among those indicted included an Anti-Gang Investigator at the LASD Deputy Michael Meiser who worked at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic north of Los Angeles. The facility is commonly known as 'Wayside'.

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Mexican Mafia Death Row Inmate & Sureño Rappers Charged with Partnering with Sinaloa Cartel

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A recent superseding indictment charged several high level Mexican Mafia or La eMe members and Sureño gang members with collecting taxes and extortion payments in their areas of influence. Standard operating procedure for the Mexican Mafia prison gang who would greenlight those who refused to pay.

In this case, a pair of gang members turned rappers who collected street taxes from other rappers and musicians who claimed affiliation burned the house of one who didn't want to pay up. The indictment also showed that longtime eMe figure who controlled most of San Diego and other areas, one of the three-man California commision for the gang had partnered up with the Sinaloa Cartel on human smuggling and drug trafficking.

He even offered Mexican Mafia protection in the federal prison system for El Chapo...all while sitting on death row in San Quentin Prison. Now, with California's death penalty all but gone, he faces federal charges.

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Feds Takedown SFV Peckerwoods Gang in Los Angeles on RICO, Financial & Fentanyl Trafficking Charges

 "Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Federal prosecutors have announced the arrests of 42 alleged members and associates of a Los Angeles-based white supremacist gang as part of a sweeping indictment that names a total of 68 defendants.

29 of the suspects were arrested Wednesday during raids by a host of federal and local law enforcement officials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and a newly unsealed 76-count indictment. Another 13 defendants were already in custody, leaving 26 who remained at large.

All the defendants are accused of being members or associated of the SFV Peckerwoods, which operates in L.A.'s San Fernando Valley, DOJ representatives said in a written statement.

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Mexican Mafia Fugitive "Evil," Who Controlled Ventura County Killed in Rosarito

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Martin Madrigal Cazares, known as "Evil," was a fugitive Mexican Mafia member who controlled Sureño gangs in Ventura County, California, from a base in Mexico. He was killed in Rosarito, Baja California last month. He had been arrested with another fugitive Mexican Mafia member and 9 others in Rosarito carrying weapons and drugs back in January 2023.

However, it seems he was released from custody since that time. His release and death have gone unreported in Mexico, with only the LA Times reporting on the incident.

Borderland Beat has received exclusive information and photographs surrounding his death.

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