Authorities this week charged 13 folks with gathering cash from drug gross sales and extorted commissary items contained in the Los Angeles County jails on behalf of Michael “Mosca” Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who managed the jail rackets till his demise in July.
The case filed Wednesday by Los Angeles County prosecutors presents one more illustration of how the Mexican Mafia, a prison-based syndicate of Latino gang members, controls and extracts cash from inmates held on the nation’s largest jail complicated.
Torres, 59, oversaw this method utilizing contraband cellphones in a state jail a whole lot of miles away, the place he was serving a sentence of 133 years to life for tried homicide, conspiracy and witness tampering. Stated to have been inducted into the Mexican Mafia in 1994, Torres was stabbed to demise within the train yard at California State Jail, Sacramento, on July 6 in what legislation enforcement officers suspect was an inner energy wrestle over management of the L.A. County jails.
Michael Torres, a member of the Mexican Mafia, was stabbed to demise on July 6 at California State Jail, Sacramento.
(California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
The crimes alleged in Thursday’s case predate Torres’ demise. The defendants are charged with extortion, conspiring to commit extortion, gang participation, smuggling medicine right into a jail, conspiring to smuggle medicine right into a jail and conspiring to commit assault.
The case facilities round Jose Martinez, 35, a reputed member of the Rockwood gang nicknamed “Duke,” who was described in a police report as an “out of custody facilitator.” Martinez is accused in court docket paperwork of relaying messages between inmates and gathering cash from the gross sales of medicine. He additionally allegedly collected the proceeds of extorted commissary items.
Police studies reviewed by The Instances state that for each $10 a Latino inmate spends on the jail’s commissary on snacks, clothes or hygiene provides, he should contribute $1.50 price of products to a group referred to as the “kitty.” These gadgets are then resold, making a secondary market that’s cheaper than the jail-authorized one. “The contribution of bought gadgets was enforced with violence and the specter of violence,” prosecutors wrote in a grievance.
On a recorded jail telephone in March 2022, Martinez informed Pharoah Brooks, 46, an alleged Clanton 14 gang member referred to as “Blackie,” that Brooks wanted to give you $600 every week in kitty gross sales from the dormitory he oversaw at North County Correctional Facility, in accordance with a police report.
An inside view of the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic.
(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)
Brooks allegedly promised Martinez he would “ahead all — all of the grocery cash to you,” which investigators believed was both kitty or drug proceeds. Narcotics are offered at a staggering markup within the county jails. A gram of heroin price $50 on the road, for instance, can value 20 instances that in jail.
When sheriff’s deputies and FBI brokers raided Martinez’s dwelling in Compton in 2022, they seized envelopes full of money that have been earmarked for various “shot callers” inside the jail, in accordance with a police report.
Authorities additionally discovered, hidden inside a ebook within the Compton dwelling, handwritten “roll calls” that listed the names, gangs, nicknames, reserving numbers and court docket dates for all Latino inmates within the jails. This documentation, the report says, permits the Mexican Mafia to “observe down individuals in unhealthy standing, individuals that owe cash, to coordinate the motion of medicine and communications, to account for taxation income such because the kitty and different enterprise enterprise.”
Martinez and Brooks have been recorded discussing an inmate who was holding himself out as a Mexican Mafia member, in accordance with a police report. Saying the person was referred to as “Mikey from Florence,” Brooks requested Martinez to “run a make on that.”
Posing as a Mexican Mafia member can draw a demise sentence from the gang. Torres had been serving life in jail for taking pictures a San Fernando Valley gang member in 2003 who was shaking down drug sellers and prostitutes by falsely claiming to characterize the group.
After talking to Brooks, Martinez bought a name from one other inmate, Marco “Mugsy” Lujan, in accordance with a police report. Martinez informed Lujan, 46, a reputed member of the Laguna Park Vikings, that “uncle” confirmed the supposed Mexican Mafia member “doesn’t exist.”
“OK,” Lujan replied, in accordance with the report. “We’re going to take him out.”
The outside of Pitchess Detention Heart in Castaic.
(Los Angeles Instances)
A day later, three inmates attacked a “utterly defenseless” Michael Nunez in his dormitory at North County Correctional Facility, the police report says. Nunez curled up on the ground as Ariel Pereyra, Andy Dominguez and Angel Grajales allegedly beat him for a minute and 30 seconds till sheriff’s deputies broke it up, in accordance with the report. Nunez was hospitalized with head trauma.
The costs unsealed this week present little has modified within the operations of the jail rackets since Torres first carried out them whereas awaiting trial 20 years in the past.
Simply as Martinez is alleged to have relayed orders and picked up cash from outdoors jail, Torres used his spouse to discipline calls from inmates and handle his cash, in accordance with recorded calls performed at his trial. Deputies additionally seized from a Torres underling two roll name lists and several other handwritten messages from his boss.
“I’m suppose to be receiving cash from you vatos as soon as a month,” one learn, “and to this point for the final 3 [months] I haven’t obtained nada. … So to keep away from any [confusion] that is the way it’s going to work to any extent further. Every time one in all you could have cash for me, you’ll have your senora” — woman — “put it on my books after which have her give a notice to my senora for me stating how a lot and who it’s from. This manner I’ll know for positive who’s cash is coming in and who’s not.”
One other was addressed to a shot caller who had been gathering cash from a jail facility in Castaic.
“Months have handed and I haven’t obtained nada,” Torres wrote, “so both you’re pocketing it or you could have it. Produce it or get handled. That is no exceptions. If folks need to take my kindness for weak point then step up.”
When Torres was held on the lockup in downtown L.A., a detective testified, inmates turned to him earlier than submitting to guards’ instructions. “They might shout out issues like, ‘M, do I comply?’ Or, ‘Hey carnal, do I go together with this system?’ Issues of that nature,” Det. Javier Clift testified. “And Mr. Torres at all times informed them, ‘Go forward.’”
“Very well mannered man,” Clift stated of Torres, including: “You need to be very cautious with these guys, as a result of they know learn how to work people and attempt to get on their good facet.”
