Several members of the gang have risen through its ranks to become leaders of the Mexican Mafia. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. because they are minors. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Luis De La Rosa Rios, Jesse Contreras, Ernesto Cisneros and Haylee Grisham have been charged in federal court with Arroyos killing. 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. In an indictment brought in 2007, authorities accused the gang of attacking members of rival Black gangs in an attempt to drive them from the Florence-Firestone area. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. Two male Florencia members, aged 19 and 20, were arrested for involvement in the incident. ATF is committed and dedicated to removing violent criminals like these from our society for life. 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. Chief Judge Bastian determined Leon posed a danger to the community and an extreme risk to re-offend given his significant criminal history and recidivist criminal behavior. MLS # 1679310 A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? 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. Cloudflare Ray ID: 7c0660170e4a056a The rules, written in a cramped hand, state that every Florencia-13 clique should elect by majority vote a president and vice president, who were to hold weekly meetings. The three men are members of Florencia-13, according to the FBI. Then something changed, 7 hospitalized after driver in stolen car runs red light in San Bernardino, police say, Barstow police investigating after officer caught on video hitting man with a baton, Northern California town on edge after second fatal stabbing in a week, Man found guilty of murdering teens who ding-dong-ditched his house, Sacramento, San Francisco mayors take shots at each others city before NBA playoff game. Four were already in custody prior to todays arrests and one is a fugitive. Any gang member who had an issue with another was to bring it up at the clique meeting. And after they agree its over, its a dead issue.. The dealers were already paying off the Florencia-13 leadership and supplying them with cocaine, he testified. Arturo Castellanos has been incarcerated since 1979 for a murder conviction. 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. More than 20 people were killed. [8], Between 2005 and 2014 there was a Southern California style Mexican restaurant at 185 Sullivan Street in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City named Florencia 13 after the gang. Dorado, Fazah, and Sanchez have all been held without bond since entering federal custody. Those arrested today are among 36 members and associates of the F13 gang named in six federal grand jury indictments. A $300-million (minimum) gondola to Dodger Stadium? Arroyoscollapsed in an alley and died at a hospital. ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. 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. Judge Bastian sentenced Leon to 100 months on the firearms offense and a consecutive 60 months on the contraband offense. 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, [13] As of 2009, 94 of the 102 had been convicted or pleaded guilty, 3 had pending trials, 2 had died and 5 were fugitives from justice. Castellanos was not indicted because he is already serving a life prison term in a maximum security cell in Pelican Bay State Prison. Dorado then reported back to the incarcerated F13 Gang member who issued the order: Thats a done deal. Police say he was with his girlfriend, looking at a house that he was thinking of buying, when two men robbed him at gunpoint of his wallet and jewelry. He's family to us.". The STANDS4 Network . Four Florencia-13 members have gone on to join the Mexican Mafia, law enforcement officials have testified in prosecutions of the gang: Arturo Castellanos, known as Tablas; his brother Braulio, nicknamed Babo; Juan Topo Garcia and Leonel Wizard Laredo. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. A lock ( Wizard, 47, who is currently incarcerated at a federal prison in Beaumont, Texas allegedly directed F13s operations in the unincorporated Florence-Firestone neighborhood of South Los Angeles, as well as parts of Lynwood, Maywood, Bell and other nearby communities. How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! Public Information Officer 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. Leon was identified as working within a criminal organization responsible for the distribution of thousands of deadly pills containing fentanyl in early 2019. The investigators have done a magnificent job at thwarting this relationship. "F13 is a large, multi-generational street gang that previously has been the subject of federal prosecutions, including two large racketeering cases," the DOJ said. The gang now has at least two dozen cliques across South Los Angeles, Huntington Park, South Gate and Maywood. An official website of the United States government. The edict led to indiscriminate shootings of Black and Latino residents, as Florencia-13 members prowled the streets for targets and East Coast Crips committed retaliatory shootings of their own, witnesses testified. One of the indictments alleges that the gang is a criminal enterprise as defined by the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Official websites use .gov Authorities arrested 11 members and associates of the South Los Angeles-based Florencia 13. These shot callers were then ordered to coordinate the illegal distribution of drugs and other criminal activities, to ensure that extortionate taxes were collected, and otherwise to oversee their respective portions of the gangs territory, such as by resolving disputes both among F13 gang members and associates and with members of other Los Angeles gangs, the indictment states. The gang is named after the Florence area of Los Angeles County, controlled by the Mexican Mafia. They say conditions at Pelican Bay are unconstitutional and amount to slow torture. You can also view a larger version of this document. 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. Anthony Williams, DEA Special Agent in Charge, commented: This multi-agency, coordinated investigation identified a network of drug traffickers tied directly to one of the most violent Mexican drug cartels La Familia or the Knights Templar. The Mexican Mafia's influence on the streets stems in part from its power inside California jails and prisons. Three of the defendants were previously arrested in this case before todays enforcement activities, and eight are fugitives. The former head of Wells Fargo Banks retail banking division has agreed to plead guilty to obstructing a government examination into the banks widespread sales practices misconduct, which included opening A resident of the Westside of Los Angeles pleaded guilty today to federal criminal charges for using websites and apps such as Snapchat to meet and entice children to engage A South Bay man who along with three other accomplices victimized a 15-year-old girl by creating sexually explicit videos of her has been sentenced to 220 months in Central District of California State corrections officials say conditions in the units are humane and that the severe restrictions are necessary to curtail gang communications. Many of the victims, Black and Latino, had no gang affiliations. Get the day's top news with our Today's Headlines newsletter, sent every weekday morning. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Domestic Cannabis Suppression / Eradication Program, Red Ribbon Toolkit - Resources For Your Community, DEA National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, Intelligence Research Specialist Job Announcements, Schedule A Hiring Authority: Intelligence Research Specialist, Privacy Impact Assessment and Management Information Systems, Victim Witness Assistance Program Resources. . All rights reserved. "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. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Official websites use .govA .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. 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. Anyone who ignores the group's edicts faces likely retaliation if they end up behind bars. Earlier this year, Carter had handed out life sentences to Florencia members Jesse Vasquez, 36; Alberto Hernandez, 28; Gilberto Oliva, 41; Manuel Hernandez, 27; and Noe Gonzalez, 28. Jose Gonzalez, 36, received a 20-year sentence. Beginning in 2004, the unincorporated Los Angeles County area north of Watts was the site of one of the regions worst gang sieges since the early 1990s, evolving into what some residents felt was a race war. "We're going to miss him a lot. In time it absorbed smaller gangs, many of which became cliques, or subsets, of Florencia-13. Grisham, the girlfriend of Rios, is described as a gang associate. For a monthly payment, typically between $200 and $250, he said, members of Florencia-13 and other gangs are warned that the business is under the auspices of a Mexican Mafia member. Florencia-13 tag on a stop sign on Florence Ave. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Jesse Contreras, 34; Ernesto Cisneros, 22; Luis Alfredo de la Rosa Rios, 27, and Haylee Marie Grisham, 18, are charged with murdering Officer Fernando Arroyos in a violent crime in aid of. 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. This case was prosecuted by Stephanie Van Marter, Assistant United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! 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. 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. LEXINGTON, Ky. - Senior Florencia Urrutia has been named a member of the Second Team All-Southeastern Conference, the conference announced on Thursday. The defendants charged today are: Luis Alfredo De La Rosa Rios, 29, an F13 member also known as "Lil J"; Ernesto Cisneros, 22, an F13 member also known as "Gonzo"; Jesse Contreras, 34, an F13 member who claimed a moniker of "Skinny Jack," but who also may be known as "Flaco"; and Haylee Marie Grisham, 18, who is Rios' girlfriend. Additionally, Sanchez was found guilty of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, based on his possession of a handgun at one of the illegal gambling establishments run by the gang known as casitas.. The defendants then committed an execution-style killing. Florencia-13 members also collect protection money from local merchants who seek help in keeping gang members from hurting their business, the former member of the gang said. The Times reported earlier this month that Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva asked federal authorities to handle the situation because he didn't believe Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon's office would be tough enough. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Christopher C. Kendall of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Section. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images). All fourdefendants were found guilty of both Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Conspiracy and Drug Trafficking Conspiracy, the latter being based on the F13 Gangs street sales of illegal narcotics and coordinated operations to smuggle drugs into the Los Angeles County Jail (LACJ). These two investigations disrupted the criminal activities of the Mexican Mafia, the Los Angeles street gang Florencia 13, and the Mexican Mafias relationship with the La Familia drug cartel, which is responsible for using firearms to commit violent crimes and trafficking hundreds of thousands of pounds of controlled substances into the United States, Said Steven J. Bogdalek, ATF Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Division. Their seamless partnership resulted in the successful outcome of this matter. Click to reveal LOS ANGELES Authorities have arrested 11 members and associates of the South Los Angeles-based Florencia-13 (F13) street gang on federal racketeering, narcotics and firearms charges. 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.. "There's a fascination with gangs," said founder Alfred Lomas, a former member of the Florencia 13 gang. That has reduced payback killings as well. Arroyos and his assailants exchanged gunfire and he was hit once, federal authorities said. ft. home is a 3 bed, 2.0 bath property. Florencia-13 members were forbidden from extorting paisas slanging in the hood a reference, Velasquez testified, to Mexican nationals selling drugs in the gangs territory. The indictment alleges that participants in the Project sought to give La Familia members free rein to sell methamphetamine in Southern California and to provide protection for incarcerated cartel members in exchange for money and methamphetamine going to Mexican Mafia members. Information and translations of florencia 13 in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. This resulted in the Mexican Mafia putting a green light out on the East Coast Crips. The particular charge that prosecutors have brought against the four violent crime in aid of racketeering means they must make the case that the defendants robbed and murdered Arroyos to maintain or increase their standing within Florencia-13. Florencia 13, works closely with the Mexican Mafia and is a rival of the 18th Street set. Why is Frank McCourt really pushing this? Florencia-13 has opened unlicensed dispensaries in South Los Angeles, selling not just marijuana out of the storefronts but cocaine and methamphetamine as well, the former member said. 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 . It was among the deadliest acts of violence in modern Kansas history. The violence left dozens of people dead, including many with no gang affiliation, and required enormous county resources to combat. How Palm Springs ran out Black and Latino families to build a fantasy for rich, white people, 17 SoCal hiking trails that are blooming with wildflowers (but probably not for long! An additional six defendants were already in custody prior to todays takedown in connection with state charges. 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. 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). Luis Alfredo De La Rosa Rios, 29; Ernesto Cisneros, 22; Jesse Contreras, 34; and Rios girlfriend, 18-year-old Haylee Marie Grisham, were charged in federal court with violent crime in aid of racketeering, which carries a potential death penalty and minimum sentence of life in federal prison without the possibility of parole. Sanchez also served as armed security and carried a firearm to protect the casitas drug operations. None could be reached for comment, and they have yet to enter pleas. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF. Arroyos and his assailants exchanged gunfire. The American Society of Mexico se congratula en anunciar el nombramiento de Florencia Davel, VP LatAm & Global Distributors Market de Bristol Myers Squibb, como Co-Chair de su Council of Latin . As demonstrated at trial, Dorado, Fazah, and Sanchez were F13 Gang soldiers who engaged in narcotics trafficking, violence, and/or firearms possession in furtherance of the gang. Dorado was also involved in the F13 Gangs efforts to smuggle illegal narcotics into local jails. For her part, Casado was shown to be a secretary who assisted the extortionate tax collections and drug trafficking activities of the gangs two shot callers on the streets; and she also repeatedly visited the operational leader of the gang Mexican Mafia member Leonel Laredo, aka Wizard imprisoned at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California, to relay gang-related messages. Official websites use .gov Suite 1200 That night, Fazah, Dorado, and other F13 Gang members lured the victim into an alley and attacked him. The lead defendant in RICO indictment Leonel Laredo, a.k.a. Login . During this mornings takedown, 14 of the 31 defendants named in this indictment were taken into custody. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. News Florencia 13 Gang Member Arrested on Rico Charges Latino Gang Members Indicted for 'Cleansing' Operation 3 Gang Members Charged With Race Killing To his supporters, Castellanos is a relentless campaigner for prisoner rights who has eschewed a history of violence to help coordinate peaceful protests behind bars. Secure .gov websites use HTTPSA lock ( Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Central District of California (Los Angeles) A second indictment unsealed this morning concerns the Mexican Mafia and its control over the Florencia 13 criminal street gang in south Los Angeles County. Florencia did the opposite, law enforcement officials say, absorbing smaller gangs and expanding their extortion and drug dealing rackets on the orders of its leaders, who are incarcerated many hundreds of miles away. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com. Out of the 36 defendants named in the six indictments, 11 were arrested today, 16 were already in custody, and authorities are searching for nine fugitives. The three men are members of Florencia-13, according to. This indictment charges 31 defendants and alleges violations of the federal racketeering (RICO) statute, as well as a host of narcotics, firearms, and fraud offenses. Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca stated: The successful results of this joint operation allowed law enforcement to intervene in the development of a very strong and powerful merger between dangerous criminal organizations. Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. 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. The suspects were alleged members of Florencia 13, and are facing murder and attempted murder charges. 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. Six of her spring victories . How snitches and sex offenders are rooted out and punished. The defendants taken into custody this morning are scheduled to make their initial court appearance this afternoon in United States District Court. A locked padlock Had it been an incorporated city, that rate would have ranked it among the nations worst. The indictment named 30 members and associates of the F13 gang. Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions. 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. Todays salvo against the Mexican Mafia is part of a 20-year fight to curb the influence of the prison gang both inside prison walls and on the streets of Southern California, said United States Attorney Andr Birotte Jr. We successfully dismantled the gangs leadership structure in prior cases, causing chaos throughout the organization.