Arroyos and his assailants exchanged gunfire. Any gang member who had an issue with another was to bring it up at the clique meeting. (Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images). Urrutia, a native of Santa Fe, Argentina, is currently the No. 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. Anyone who ignores the group's edicts faces likely retaliation if they end up behind bars. Several members of the gang have risen through its ranks to become leaders of the Mexican Mafia. Arroyoscollapsed in an alley and died at a hospital. Florencia 13 members have been caught buying weapons from U.S. military personnel. Seven decades ago, Latino youths in South Los Angeles banded together to form a gang. Florencia 13 is part of a terrifying gang war scene in Los Angeles, and it also has influence in more rural states like Virginia and Iowa. Juries have found in a number of recent trials that Florencia-13 amounts to a racketeering enterprise, but in those cases, prosecutors had evidence recorded calls, intercepted letters and jailhouse notes that its leaders had directed the drug deals, shakedowns and murders that formed a pattern of racketeering activity. An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. State corrections officials say conditions in the units are humane and that the severe restrictions are necessary to curtail gang communications. 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. They also arrested 25 members and associates of the San Fernando Valley-based Vineland boys. Click on each highlighted area to learn more about it. 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. The suspects were alleged members of Florencia 13, and are facing murder and attempted murder charges.[12]. 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. Column: Does racism make you too stupid to be a cop? 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. Arturo Castellanos has been incarcerated since 1979 for a murder conviction. How drug sales, prostitution and other illegal activities are organized and taxed, with a percentage going to gang leaders behind bars. 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 . The Southern California Drug Task Force is comprised of federal and local law enforcement agencies, including the DEA, the ATF, the Los Angeles Police Department and the Pasadena Police Department. Two male Florencia members, aged 19 and 20, were arrested for involvement in the incident. 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. An official website of the United States government. Market data provided by Factset. Arturo Cruz, 34, was sentenced to 60 years in prison. A California law says yes. A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. 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 . The action drew international attention and plaudits from a host of civil and human rights groups, including the ACLU and Amnesty International. Your IP: The sentence imposed by the court removes a drug trafficker and violent offender from our streets and sends a clear message to others who may choose to engage in such criminal activity.. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! The three men are members of F13, Grisham is a gang associate, and they carried out the attack to increase and maintain their position within thegang, the Justice Department said. Their seamless partnership resulted in the successful outcome of this matter. So all you homies doing so, the rules say, get a job!, The document lays out which drugs can be sold where: Jailed Florencia-13 members in need of money were permitted to sell heroin in the county jail, but not speed, glass, crank, or crystal. No heroin was to be sold in gang territory on the streets. Years of violent conflict over that territory with other gangs lent Florencia an identity and reason for being. Menace, shot and wounded a fellow F13 member to discipline him at one of the gangs casitas, or illegal gambling houses. East Coast Crips responded with shootings of their own, often targeting Latinos who were not gang members. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Terrence P. Mann, Sheila Nagaraj and Victoria Degtyareva. The prison-based syndicate is also known as La Eme, Spanish for M, the 13th letter of the alphabet. "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. Wednesday, June 7, 2017 Contact: Los Angeles Field Division 818-265-2507 www.atf.gov Two Florencia 13 Gang Members Sentenced to Life in Prison LOS ANGELES - Two key operatives of the Florencia 13 street gang were sentenced this week to life without parole in federal prison. 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. 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. The notes, he said, were written by Arturo Castellanos in his cell at Pelican Bay State Prison, where he was and still is serving a life sentence for murder. Of those indicted, 94 have pleaded guilty or have been convicted. The verdicts remove these violent defendants from our community and deal an important blow against the Florencia 13 gangs campaign of drugs and violence., Dorado and Fazah alone were found guilty of conspiring to commit a Violent Crime in Aid of Racketeering (VICAR) for a gang-related beating in Huntington Park that ultimately led to the shooting death of the victim. And after they agree its over, its a dead issue.. 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. The remaining three indictments charge three individual F13 members and associates with distributing of methamphetamine. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS Eric Garcia, a Florencia-13 gang member, said he facilitated conference calls with dozens of Mexican Mafia members, who dialed in from prison cells on contraband phones, to discuss the. Three years after the Florencia indictment, residents say, a measure of calm has come to Florence-Firestone. "We're going to miss him a lot. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com. 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. LOS ANGELES Two key operatives of the Florencia 13 street gang were sentenced this week to life without parole in federal prison. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. 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. That has reduced payback killings as well. 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. Sanchez also served as armed security and carried a firearm to protect the casitas drug operations. . 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. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. [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. Those rules and letters from Castellanos attempted to adhere those prison rules to the street, he said. The prison system is a segregated place. Lock 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. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Information and translations of florencia 13 in the most comprehensive dictionary definitions resource on the web. Prosecutors alleged that Mexican Mafia member Arturo Tablas Castellanos essentially created a crime wave in the Florence-Firestone district. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. An official website of the United States government. 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. 156.38.193.218 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.. Jose Dorado, 34, Tannous Fazah, 26, Jose Sanchez, 40, all of Huntington Park, and Giselle Casado, 33, of Downey, were . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Now we have demonstrated our ability to stop the Mexican Mafia from realizing a new power base by disrupting the gangs plot to establish a threatening alliance with a major drug trafficking organization.. Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox. The two suspects were also charged for a shooting at a group of people at a Taylorsville, Utah cemetery on January 6, which did not harm anyone. Operation Joker's Wild investigated the gang's drug trafficking, extortion of street criminals, and racially based murders of African Americans in the area. (213) 894-4465. 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. 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). 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 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.