After that first transaction, Sandoval went back for morea total of three, four, or five times, he told me, though he vividly described six transactions to an investigator hired by his family. Several weeks after the jurys verdict, he told me over the phone that he wished to recant everything he had said to me on tape about his involvement with drugs. His wife divorced him. Our prisons, far from turning out reformed citizens, have instead become incubators of a statewide crime wave. Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, pictured, is serving a life sentence in U.S. federal prison for leading the assassins. 01-07-00443-CR (Tex. Within prisons, there are a couple of parts to the initiation process. Blood was gushing out of a hole in his neck; he was unconscious but gasping wildly. On the fourth day of the Sandoval trial, as if to punctuate the implicit warning in the testimony that gangs till thrived within the system, a member of the Mexican Mafia stabbed a Hermano de Pistolero to death at the Eastham Unit. The guard made the call, apparently unaware that such messages, and the letters, might contain coded instructions from a prison drug-runner to a high-ranking member of the Texas Syndicate. [4] [5] Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Criminal activity 2 Structure Rosas would do the killing, while another TS member held Arredondo and two others stood by as lookouts. And theres always somebody, the ex-drug runner told me, wholl do something for you.. By the spring of 1986, prison officials had examined every inmate for telltale tattoos, weeded out identifiable gang members, and ordered that they spend the rest of their sentences in administrative segregation, away from the general population. (LogOut/ There was no further violence, a signal to those who understood gang behavior that Arredondo had been snuffed out by one of his own rather than by a rival gang. TS members will also assist a fellow member in this pending criminal case. Uneasy truces between gangs have developed. Mungiki is a religious/ethnic sect in Kenya. He had lied to his own investigator, just as inmates and Internal Affairs had lied to the jurors. But the evidence gathered by Justice clearly added up to a violation of the Eight Amendments protection from cruel and unusual punishment. Today, Sandoval says he mailed the letter and others like it with a kind heart but with bad judgment. And in an institution where judgment allowed some inmates to flaunt dangerous weapons while officials looked the other way, mailing the letter seemed like a minor transgression. Thats all they dolook for our weaknesses.. However, it counts among its rivals some cartel heavyweights such as the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by notorious drug lordJoaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. Ive seen about five new boots take one step out of the control riot-gate and into the main hallway and turn around and say, See you later, said Sandoval. I had the burden lifted from my shoulders., You have these inmates, said an Ellis I correctional officer, where you write em up [for rule infractions] and nothing happens. The United Blood Nation, who still operate to this day in New York, was a gang started back in the early 1990's to protect members from Puerto Rican and Hispanic gangs, such as the Latin Kings and Netas. ), The Sandoval trial was a rare public washing of the Texas penal systems bloodstained linen. Carnales make sure that the rules are known. Dont go in there, said the veteran, who then correctly hollered Fight! Presently other guards arrived, along with a lieutenant, who ordered, Open the gate.. After building tenders disappeared due to a court order, the Syndicate's activities turned to drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, protection, illegal gambling, and contract killing. On the way home Sandoval asked his cousin to drive the scenic route. The group control certain parts of major cities in Kenya and generally recruit youths from poor neighborhoods. [6], TS has a paramilitary structure, headed by a president and vice president elected by the general membership. Each society sustains the other, but the economic cycle depends on a vital link, for the supply will not meet the demand unless the product reaches the consumer. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Texas Syndicate members, therefore, generally attempt to conceal their association with the TS from law enforcement. Anyone who gets through that is considered tough enough to be a member. All of above. How to score cheap flights (and mistake fares) in 2023. The most common form of initiation for a male gang member is. By now he was a CO III, an old boot, and he had trained many of the guards who now worked with him. Around the same time, prison officials expressed concern about the fifty or sixty members of the two Los Angeles-based black street gangs, the Bloods and the Crips, that had recently entered the system. Whos on trial here, Louie? demanded the intense and steely-eyed chief prosecutor, Travis McDonald, during his two-hour grilling of Luis Sandoval on May 24, 1991. The Barrio Azteca gang is known to engage in a wide range of criminal activity including contract killing, murder, torture, drug trafficking and human trafficking among other offenses. And all you see is white shirts. Sandoval did not know any warden, ranking officer, or CO at Ellis I who did not have at least one snitch. (Fong 41) This requirement, which exists in the case of the Texas Syndicate and Mexican Mafia for example, serves as a means of sponsorship, so therefore anyone interested in joining the gang, their trustworthiness can be verified if a current gang member is familiar with them. Louie would love nothing more than to be a guard again, Fischer told them. Federal, state and local authorities have arrested 17 members and associates of the Texas Syndicate in connection with a methamphetamine/heroin trafficking operation in central Texas announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash, FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, and Gonzales . Sandoval put his hand against the wound, looked up, and saw Crippin and McCool standing there, gaping. Tango Blast cliques along the Rio Grande Valley and in Corpus Christi are the region's major players, along with Texas Syndicate and Texas Mexican Mafia. Theres no way to shut them down, Sandoval said. He was whisked off to the Walker County jail. The gang murders that once took place inside prisons now take place on the streets. He was accused of leaving a door unsecured and unguarded as part of a murder plot. Seventeen San Antonio-based members of the Texas (TS) have been charged by federal grand jury indictment with conspiring to violate the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt (RICO . He was a drug dealer, with connections dating back to his days peddling heroin in El Paso. 826 Hispanic members operate across Texas, including specific reportings in the Coffield Unit, about 60 miles southwest of Tyler, and . He was muling, said McDonald. A member who violates the rules and loses favor becomes a muleta, a term which is used to mean a problem. Such a violation may result in the TS bringing its own official gang-based charges against the member who is being accused of violating the rules. Federal, state and local authorities have arrested 17 members and associates of the Texas Syndicate in connection with a methamphetamine/heroin trafficking operation in central Texas announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash, FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, and Gonzales Police Chief Tim Crow. Armando Garcia had seen this coming. Without drugs, gangs would have little income; without income, they would have little power over the system. Some, but not all, TS members have TS tattoos. Here are fifteen of the most troubling and horrifying gang initiation rituals around the world. If several TS members commit a crime, it is not uncommon for one member to demonstrate his loyalty by taking responsibility for the crime in order to shield other TS brothers from the attention of law enforcement. But he also acknowledged that he had made mistakes; and to me, though not to the jury, he confessed that one of those mistakes was bringing drugs into Ellis I. West Texas Syndicate has always embraced the spirit of a hardworking, relentless underdog. It is important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. The Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners. Gangs still terrorize the prisons. It criticized TDCJs good ol boy system, which Sandoval claimed has ruled with an iron fist since the penal system was first established. Hispanic guards, he said, were either coerced into quitting or found doing something wrong. Supervisors treated inmates like animals. He further wrote, I am not the only one who worked there that knows that TDCJ is linked to the gangs and their illegal activities. An estimated 70,000 in their ranks, they are as violent as they are numerous, and what was once a Los Angeles-based operation, now has interests across the United States and in Canada. by . First, a new prisoner or prospective member is asked a question by a member. It took more than three years for the Arredondo murder case to come to trial, during which time a number of things happened to Sandoval. So it may be a week or a month or a yearbut that hit is on.. Yes, we know that there is some discrepancy listing a major terrorist organization along with prison gangs, but recruiting methods and reliance on crime for income make terror organizations like ISIS similar enough to gangs to list them here. App., 2008) On Dec. 21, 2006, Texas Syndicate members are arrested for the contract killing of Julio A. Serrano. Members of the Texas Syndicate maintain regular communication with members who have been imprisoned. The members then gather a large amount of fecal matter and urine and proceed to dump it on that new recruit. News on all your favorite celebs, reality TV, and movies. It generally signifies new membership into a club or group, and while some examples of initiation can be fun and bring people together, others are downright traumatizing. (LogOut/ All Garcia and his friend Vicente lacked was a reliable drug mule who could be counted on to transport drugs into the prison. Receipt of inmates on interstate compact and the current membership in groups with Hispanic and Latino supremacy ideology lend to the threat of an organizing TS within our facilities. Roughly 33 percent of gang members entering the Texas Department of Criminal Justice system in 2014 were from the southeast Texas region, with 90 percent of those coming from Greater Houston. The moment Garcia asked Sandoval to bring marijuana into TDCJ, it did not take superhuman deductive powers for the guard to figure out the Hispanic inmates clientele. Push inevitably came to shove: In two separate gang confrontations, the Texans murdered one California inmate and seriously wounded another. One juror phoned Sandovals brother that afternoon and told him that in her view the case against Sandoval was racially motivated. The only witnesses who said that Sandoval had anything to do with the murder of inmate Joe Arredondo were two convicted felons: Carlos Rosas, a Texas Syndicate member who confessed to actually stabbing Arredondo but was offered a favorable deal in exchange for his testimony; and Ruben Ortiz, a convicted murderer and Texas Syndicate sex slave who was paroled after he agreed to testify. In 1967, the Nuestra Familia prison gang (which is comprised of inmates from the northern rural areas of California) and the Texas Syndicate (made up of inmates from Texas) formed to defend themselves against the Mexican Mafia (EME), the Aryan Brotherhood, and Black prison gangs that existed in the California penal system. Chris is a sports enthusiast with a fondness for politics, craft beer, horror movies and travel. house for rent waldport oregon; is thanos a villain or anti hero Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. If you work at any time for the TDCJ, said assistant prosecutor Burt Neal Tuck Tucker during the first day of testimony, you know how powerful the Texas Syndicate can be.. Others have been initiated by murdering other gang members who were in poor standing, while others still have witnessed gang members forcing themselves on their girlfriend as a rite of passage. The money chiefly comes from drugs. Absolutely not. The gangs alleged leader Eduardo Ravela is on the FBIs Top Ten most wanted list. App. The Texas Syndicate or Syndicato Tejano was the first prison gang to heavily impact the prison system in Texas. And each gang, after accomplishing the first objective of protection from other gangs, preyed on inmates who would buy drugs or sex or who could be intimidated into giving sex or buying protection. One day Sandoval received a phone call at work. If the question is answered correctly, he is then tasked with either stabbing another prisoner or a guard. To the newer guards, Sandovals stature among the inmates was something to behold. They have their prostitution, their gambling, their extortion. A man was stabbed twenty times. hinsdale golf club membership cost; hoover smartwash brushes not spinning; advantages of plum pudding model; it's a hard life if you don't weaken meaning Prison officials believe that the rivalry between the TS and the Mexican Mafia has produced homicides in Austin, Dallas, Houston, El Paso, and especially San Antonio, where nearly one hundred suspected prison-gang-related murders were committed last year. Garcia himself was not a TS member. Other members have been instructed to attack strangers or cops, and of course, many of the women who get into this gang do so by offering themselves to multiple members. Then, he is deemed fit to join the gang. For several years, they have been using s*xual tactics to get people to join their ranks. This is a carousel. Texas Syndicate Members In San Antonio Indicted On Racketeering Charges Charges allege responsibility for four murders, three attempted murders and drug distribution . The two inmate snitches who testified against Sandoval understated their criminal history, contradicted each other, and came off looking like dirtbags who would say anything for the right price. The inmate staggered forward, blood gushing from his head and neck. In the tenements across the street from the Texas A&I University stadium lived a fifteen-year-old girl named Veronica, whom he married on June 22, 1985, after learning that TDCJ had accepted his application for employment as a correctional officer, or CO. Their primary operations revolve around drugs, and they have a truly terrifying initiation ritual for new members. The TS rules provide that the TS is to come before family. And the courier must possess a particular power: He must be able to walk through walls. Today supervisors advise guards: We cannot stop a hit. The brutality of the murder, coupled with Sandovals complete inability to prevent it, made quite an impression on the young guard. This group is one of the deadliest and most disgusting on Earth and employ many methods when it comes to spreading terror. Eventually, however, Vicente and Garcia began to ask for more than a light. However, they also have plenty of killers who ruthlessly hunt down members of rival gangs. I cant honestly tell you why he did it, said the inmate of Sandoval. These Texas offenders banded together for protection purposes and became known as one of the most feared prison gangs within the California prison system. The west end of the B-wing hallway was left unguarded after three-thirty every afternoon, when the guard normally stationed there was transferred to the chow hall. A week later another juror wrote Sandoval a four-page letter, expressing her chagrin that he had been put through all the agony. Its like a fly in a salt shaker., Today the numbers still favor the inmates: There are 47,751 of them and only 3,500 security personnelnone of whom carries a gunper eight-hour shift. The attorney was advised that his client would never again wear gray in a state penal institution. Once out of prison, many TS members continue to commit violent offenses, narcotics-related offenses, and other illegal activities in the area of the country where the members are living and associating with each other. On the outside, the operation is run very much like a business, while inside the prison is where activities are ruthless and violent, particularly within the realm of initiation. Scroll through the slideshow for 10 things you need to know about the Barrio Azteca gang. With the impersonal manner of assassins who have long since become intimate with the odor of death, the witnessesguards, inmates, and prison officialsreadily supplied evidence that gangs are calling the shots in our prisons. After their verdict was announced on Wednesday, May 29, the jurors milled around outside the courtroom and vented their disgust with the states case to the media. 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