Mexican Mafia: Prison Gang Profile

by insideprison.com

(page 2 of 2)

With the exception of sergeants, all positions of MM members are elected on leadership and negotiative capabilities. All members cast 1 vote each in order to enact proposals into decisions, and all decisions must meet unanimous approval. Contract killings of fellow Mexican Mafia members require volunteers. If no members volunteer, names are drawn. For killings requiring one executioner, any member who draws the number 1 will be designated as the killer; and for killings requiring more than one, members who draw 2, 3, and so on will also be assigned killing duties. In reality, however, many contract killings are implemented without unanimous support, usually by unit lieutenants abusing their power.

In contrast to the Texas Syndicate, the Mexican Mafia have no safeguards to constrain intra-gang conflict. While the Texas Syndicate avoids conflict within its ranks by reverting even high-ranking Mafia members automatically back to the status of solider once these members get reassigned to a different prison unit, the Mexican Mafia preserves rank in all situations.

Member recruitment is loosely based on the "homeboy connection," an informal, long-standing relationship between the recruit and an active gang member. After this connection is established and made known, a "background check" is performed by unit chairmen, who look into the prospective member's history to ensure he has no prior law enforcement or informant connections. If he passes this test, a unanimous vote will determine his acceptance into the organization. If he does not pass this test, he is often forced to pay protection fees, or is coerced into prostitution within the prison. In some cases, acceptance into the Mexican Mafia only comes after members have been rejected first by the Texas Syndicate. In this context, the Texas Syndicate's level of recruitment-selectivity will thus indirectly determine the number of new recruits entering La EME.

Mafia Members must also pass "loyalty tests," such as committing theft, fraud, "approved," or murder. When rules are violated, retaliation is swift and certain. After the 1997 botched robbery of a West French Place residence, two of the participating gang members were found dead by police shortly after. Robert de los Santos, who was found dumped on the side of a road in Bexar County, had been choked, stabbed, and run over by a car, while Adam Tenorio was found stabbed to death a week later. As the Mafia's constitution states: "Any member of Mexikanemi, no matter if he be president, vice president, general, captain, lieutenant, sergeant or soldier, who violates the rules of Mexikanemi must pay and suffer the consequences." In addition to the reasons given for the contract killings of Santos and Tenorio, four general principles in the organization's constitution also exist as guidelines for retaliation: members cannot:

1. be informants
2. be homosexual
3. be cowards or
4. show disrespect against fellow members.

Violation of these rules will result in disciplinary action.

The murder contract is known among members as "bringing down the light," and while it was once a requirement for serious violations only, it is now used superfluously with even minor infractions, such as disputes over $80 dope deals. Murders between members must be first approved in a vote by 3 members, but murders between a member and a nonmember require no prior rubber-stamp.

The Mexican Mafia's "trademark" contract-murder known among law enforcement officials consists of kidnapping, gagging, and binding the informant or violator with duct-tape before putting several bullets into the back of the head. The body is usually wrapped in a blanket and tossed into a remote rural section of the county. Such ritual was reported in 1997, when gang members, during a botched robbery attempt on West French Place, blindfolded and duct-taped 5 people and shot them multiple times in the back of the head.

As of 1998, heroin supplied the organization with most of its drug profits as well as personal use for its members. Drug-trafficking, which makes up the bulk of the organizations total earnings, is usually secured through correctional-staff channels into and out of prison. Guards willing to supply the gang drugs within the prison are given a 40% cut of the profit. Only resignation from the Department of Corrections is sufficient to terminate the guard's relationship with the Mexican Mafia.

In 1993 the Mexican Mafia signed a nonaggression pact with its historic prison-gang rivals, the Texas Syndicate. This was an important event in the development of these two prison gangs. In 1985, for example, the Texas Syndicate declared war on the Mexican Mafia and murdered four of its prison members. The Texas Department of Corrections responded by immediately placing both groups of members in separated confinement, with assaultive members housed in security detention group A and non-assaultive members in security detention group B. After such administrative segregation became an accepted means of quelling gang-related prison disturbances, segregation populations almost doubled in under 2 years. In any event, the 1993 truce suggested the beginning of a more powerful prison gang, and a larger challenge for law enforcement.

Leaders

In 1993 FBI agents arrested Heriberto "Herbie" Huerta in his cell at USP Leavenworth, where he was just finishing a 22 year sentence for cocaine possession. Huerta, who is believed to be president for the prison gang, despite his terminal sentence in a Colorado prison, was charged that year directing criminal operations from within his prison cell.

As of 2003, Carlos Rodriguez was the most recent vice president, but in June he was shot to death by two men with AK-47 assault rifles while he was idling in his Corvette on San Antonio's West Side. Before Rodriguez was vice-president Doroteo "Teo" Torres Rangel, who was assassinated in his West Side garage following reports that he had fallen "out of favour" with Huerta. Although now deceased, Jose Vega "Chepo" Hernandez was a major player in the Mexican Mafia, as well.

Gang general Robert "Beaver" Perez is now on death row for separate murders, including the botched robbery attempt in 1997 that left 5 people dead. He was also considered to be a powerful leader of the organization.

Communication and Symbols

The Mexican Mafia's primary symbol, which members display in tattooed insignias, is the national symbol of Mexico, an eagle and a snake, on a flaming circle, lying on crossed knives. In prison, Mexican Mafia members communicate by conducting meetings in the prison yard, sending messages out of prison through visitors or parolees, and using small notes called "kites." Sometimes, unique alphabets are used, or periods are aligned with letters and combined to come up with a phrase or sentence, often times a contract hit identifying someone's name.

Communication within units is usually achieved verbally. Communication between units is achieved through visitations, prison transportation and prison bus, and US mail, the latter of which usually employing hidden codes and secret patterns within letters or words. For instance, some correspondences will employ a letter-numbering system, where "a" might equal 5, b=4, c=8, d=2, e=6, and so on. Numbers interspersed throughout the message will then be matched with their corresponding letter, until a phrase is spelled out, such as "hit Major Thompson."

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References:

San Antonio Express-News, 6 April 2005
The Dallas Morning News, 23 May 1993
San Antonio Express-News, 19 October 2003
The Dallas Morning News, 13 September 1998
Fong, Robert S., Federal Probation (1990). The Organizational Structure of Prison Gangs. 54(1)