The FBI announced that it and the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) raided a Mexican Mafia-linked gang in Southern California, arresting more than a dozen individuals in connection to the organization.
Agents with the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office executed more than a dozen search warrants across San Pedro and nearby communities, according to the statement.
“This action will cause a significant setback to Rancho San Pedro and their Mexican Mafia overlords and lead to safer streets for San Pedro residents,” FBI Los Angeles Assistant Director Akil Davis said in a statement.
Eight of 14 people who were charged in a federal court in California were taken into custody, the FBI said, adding that five people are additionally facing state charges.
Members of the gang “exerts influence and control over various illegal activities both inside and outside of the prison systems” and control multiple street gangs while enforcing “its rules and promotes discipline among its members and associates by assaulting and threatening those individuals, including associates, who violate the rules, fail to carry out an order, or pose a threat to La eMe,” the department says.
Meanwhile, the FBI said that Rancho San Pedro is a decades-old gang that has around 500 members who are divided into six groups but ultimately operates under Mexican Mafia members who are imprisoned across state prisons. Rancho San Pedro pays “La Me taxes” to the Mexican Mafia, while members of the street gang who violate the criminal organizations’ rules can face punishment.
“Serious violations, including cooperation with law enforcement, may result in death,” officials said in the FBI statement.
The federal complaint said that 13 defendants were charged with racketeering and drug distribution, while one additional defendant was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the FBI. If they’re convicted on the charges in the criminal complaint, the federal defendants face a statutory maximum of life in prison, it added.
