After its formation in 1986, both the Texas Syndicate and Texas Mexican Mafia refused to recognize the Aztecas and declared war on the gang. Tango Blast. But the system will not change. And as you work there, you tend to become a product of your environment. In fact, his disciplinary record was almost spotless, and he enjoyed the privileged position of commissary clerk. By the end of the eighties, the public fretting over prison gangs had dissipated. All Garcia and his friend Vicente lacked was a reliable drug mule who could be counted on to transport drugs into the prison. That first week, as he chatted with one of the old boots, the cry came from somewhere behind him: Help me, Boss! Turning around, Sandoval saw a Hispanic inmate standing behind a hallway crash-gate, clinging to the bars with both hands. Back in February, Texas Syndicate member Ernesto Medrano and some 20 of his fellow gang members were in a Dallas federal courtroom receiving multi-year prison sentences for importing hundreds of . Tango. The Texas Syndicate (Spanish: Sindicato Tejano) is a mostly Texas -based street and prison gang consisting of predominantly Mexican American membership. Extra guards to supervise the gathering had to come from some other post. Sandoval got off in Los Angeles and found his way to Van Nuys, where a cousin put him up in his apartment. (Officials also say the Texas Syndicate is far more selective and does not, for example, recruit homosexuals.) Although numerically and financially inferior and facing multiple powerful advisories, the Barrio Azteca gang managed to murder many significant members of their enemies in several Texas prison facilities. The caller advised Sandoval not to show up for his March 18, 1991, trial, and then hung up without identifying himself. The gang cooperates with allied Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO) or transports the illicit cargo themselves. Theyd say, Dont mess with him., The new boot thereby became a feared boss among bosses. As a former prison gang member, I'm ashamed to look in the mirror because my failures are staring back at me. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. Im on trial, sir, conceded the polite young man in the pin-striped suit who sat in the witness stand. [2], Texas Syndicate members abide by a constitution requiring members to:[1], Additionally, gang leadership is determined by democratic elections, requiring a unanimous decision. One day Garcia told Sandoval to expect a call at home that evening. Murder wasnt his thing. The assailant was nowhere in sight. His wife divorced him. Texas Department of Public Safety. Yes, he had made the phone calls. None of them knew anything about Sandoval and drugs. Then he returned to Arredondo. Ruben Mosso, 'El MIlenio" "FBI: Los Zetas - problema de seguridad nacional para EU," January 9, 2008, "Prison Gangs (continued) - Gangs and Security Threat Group Awareness", "Special Issue: Gangs in the United States", "Appendix B. National-Level Street, Prison, and Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Profiles - Attorney General's Report to Congress on the Growth of Violent Street Gangs in Suburban Areas (UNCLASSIFIED)", http://www.communitycorrections.org/psn/publications/TxGngThrtAssessment2010.pdf, First prison gang remains a force to fear, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Texas_Syndicate&oldid=1123850487, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox criminal organization with ethnicity or ethnic makeup parameters, Pages using infobox criminal organization with rivals parameter, Articles containing Spanish-language text, Articles with dead external links from June 2018, Articles with permanently dead external links, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Place the Texas Syndicate before anything else, Understand that the Texas Syndicate is always in the right, Keep all gang information within the group, This page was last edited on 26 November 2022, at 01:12. A week later another juror wrote Sandoval a four-page letter, expressing her chagrin that he had been put through all the agony. But others suspected that this hit was done on behalf of the Carrillo-Fuentes DTO (Juarez Cartel). Today supervisors advise guards: We cannot stop a hit. In his first year on the job, Luis Sandoval found himself delivering drugs to a self-described drug runner on behalf of the state's deadliest prison gang, the Texas Syndicate. What is noteworthy in this pleading before U.S. Magistrate Judge Norbert J. Garney in the Western District of Texas, El Paso Division, is that while both are BA members, Shamoo Rodriguez, 35, is a resident of El Paso. Sandoval got up, ran into the hallway, and yelled fight twice. Until Judge Justices decree, TDCJs inmate population was essentially governed by brutal trusties known as building tenders, whose methodswhich included beating and sodomizing inmates into terrified submissionwent largely unchecked by prison officials. Sandoval took a step toward the crashgate but was held back by the more experienced guard. The single eye, or the eye of Providence originates in Egypt with the eye of Horus. 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. Outside, the gang works as many others criminal organizations in the US. The Texas Syndicate (Spanish:Syndicato Tejano) is a mostly-Mexican criminal group founded in Folsom State Prison, California, in the 1970s. texas syndicate hand signsjack paar cause of death. 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. Garcia would later say that he told Sandoval shortly after the Arredondo murder, Man, youre in deep shit. When Arredondo got killed, Sandoval was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. A court granted the ACLU of Illinois and Black Lives Matter Chicago permission to intervene in the consent decree negotiations. Sandoval was one of the officers I wanted to be like, said one correctional officer whom Sandoval helped train. 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. Later, Vicente asked the guard if a free world individual could mail Sandoval two money orders, which Sandoval would cash and then bring the $250 to the inmates. Word spread through the unit the way it always had, at bewildering speed: Joe Arredondo was a dead man. Running Into Fire: The Legacy of Jeff Blackburn, The Apache, the Irish Catholic Priest, and a 40-Year-Old Miscarriage of Justice, An Unforgettable Texas Tale of Envy, Embezzlement, and Fruitcake, How the Texas Rangers Became One of the Most Powerful Forces in the State. Eventually, Sandoval agreed to bring drugs into Ellis I. 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. More than. Most notably, the Los Zetas cartel has been known to count on members of the Texas Syndicate to plan and carry out murders, armed assaults and other violent wet-work. If he refused to do the favor, they could always snitch on him for lighting an inmates cigarettethough Sandoval didnt think either was that type of inmate. LUBBOCK, Texas - Cruz Perez, a/k/a "Travieso," 41, was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 327 months in federal prison for his role in a methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana distribution conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.. Perez, a member of the Texas Syndicate pled guilty in February 2017 to one count of . And Sandoval welcomed his company. Released or parole members who generate money for the gang must surrender a 10% tax ("the dime") of all proceeds toward the Texas Syndicate in prison. Armando, I cant jeopardize my life, man., Garcia took the story to the Texas Syndicate. Give me your shirt, he ordered an inmate and with it applied pressure to the wound. But such sentiments are meaningless down on the farm. A certain order prevailed, which stilled the critics and deflected the interest of the media. A man was stabbed twenty times. Fifty-two prisoners were murdered in a 21-month period that became known as the " war years ." Over 50 different gangs were represented in our study. Katy Vine has been a staff writer since 2002. And all you see is white shirts. Now selling hats and. 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 sign represents the evil eye floating above the pyramid. Llmenos para una consulta. One Ellis I officer reported that in 1986, between one hundred and two hundred gallons of chock was discovered on a weekly basis within the unit. His neck had been slashed; his head was all but severed. When he sent the letter off to his mother, he knew it wouldnt be long before law enforcement officials discovered his whereabouts. He was pronounced dead at seven that evening, a victim of twenty stab wounds. Reminded that our earlier on-the-record, on-tape conversation contradicted this, he said, I have my life to think about.I made my mistakes. Texas Syndicate Number eight on our list of biggest organized crime groups in America is the Texas Syndicate, established as a prison gang in order to counter other gangs preying on. Never try to apprehend a fugitive yourself. We are seeking a detail-oriented sign installer to transport and install a variety of signs. France's plugin electric vehicle share reached 23.8% in February, up from 20.1% year on year. The mule, they believed, had done the drugs himself. What you usually see in any gun buyback program is elderly people turning in old junk guns from some closet or garage where they have sat gathering dust for many years. A State Intelligence Estimate . Diseo y fabricacin de reactores y equipo cientfico y de laboratorio When Sandoval told me that, he was sitting in the interrogation room of the Walker County jail in Huntsville, wearing prison whites. Barrio Azteca gang members Fabian "Shamoo" Rodriguez and Juan "Porky" Manuel Viscaino-Amaro pleaded guility in U.S. federal court to racketeering, murder, and other charges related to the gang's drug and human trafficking. So it may be a week or a month or a yearbut that hit is on.. Hey, boss, you got a light? Luis Sandoval pulled out his lighter and, as he had before, lit the cigarette held by Armando Garcia. As to everything he had told his investigatorsnone of that was true either, he said. Several of them testified vigorously that Ellis I was understaffed and overcrowded, and that the unit was riddled with blind spots. I was in the dayroom. Keep all gang information within the group. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force, including DPS Special Agents, located and arrested GONZALEZ at a local motel in Lubbock.GONZALEZ is a violent offender with a history of aggravated robbery, aggravated assault . McCool opened the picket gate to allow Sandoval into the rest room. The two inmates snitched for Sandoval and herded him away from troublemakers, admonishing him, Boss, stay away from those guys.. Peaceable inmates who had lost faith in TDCJs ability to protect them now felt less inclined to carry shanks everywhere they went. What sustains the gangs is money, which inmates use to bribe prison employees. Joe Arredondo was taken to a hospital in Huntsville. When they got there they found Joe Arredondo lying on his back. A question for the mayor: If it really is unacceptable, why do you continue to accept it? As the free world would have it, there are good inmates and bad inmates. It was a blind spot, and unit officials hoped the inmates wouldnt notice. He was muling, said McDonald. The inmates handed Sandoval a letter, wondering if the guard could mail it for them. How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians. Leslie Zepeda died the day after Christmas. After the big lockdown, metal detectors were installed in every prison unit to discourage the carrying of shanks. More accurate investigations lower the number to about 4000, with some sources even going as low as 3800. on specific gang tattoos and use hand signs. 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. He was on a westbound bus, fleeing the state. But other factors have caused guards to agree to be drug mules. (After the trial, Sandoval became less talkative on the subject of drugs. At about five-thirty that afternoon, Sandoval approached CO II Cade Crippin, who was inside a cellblock, observing the inmates. The release in Mexico of one of the men responsible for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena has renewed tension between the U.S. and Mexico over the case. Though inmates werent allowed needles for tattooing, resident artists took to using the metal pieces of windup toys. Anytime they choseanytimethey could kill him. 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. He grabbed the stash of marijuana he had recently picked up, ran to the bathroom, and flushed it down his toilet. Officials knew this meant that every day from three-thirty until after chow time, activities in the narrow corridor went unmonitored. On March 19, the name of Luis Sandoval was called three times in the Walker County courthouse, but the defendant did not respond. 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.. This international criminal organization, which began as an El Paso street gang, has organized and proliferated on both sides of the Mexican border to become one of the most dangerous prison gangs operating in both state and federal facilities. If the Texas Syndicate had told him there was a murder happening, he wouldnt have gone for it. Everyone wanted informationon the inmates, on their superiors, on their peers. The real picture presents gloomy evidence of who really is in charge at TDCJnot the state, not the guards, but the convicts themselves. And as in any society, some lead while others are led. Had Schapers investigation been thorough, this denial might have seemed implausible to the jury. 10. But I was a good officer. Thus, the former good officer now wished to disavow everything he had told me earlier. In a sense, you become a convict also.. I could watch him deal with inmates and think, This guy knows something I dont know., One evening, while gazing out from his apartment balcony, Sandoval saw a car drive slowly by. One was an officer who muled marijuana and cocaine for a black inmate known as Apple Jack, whose activities were no secret at the unit. The man accused of getting into a police shoot out was a Texas syndicate gang member. It took the jury 33 minutes to decide that Sandoval was not guilty. Whats Up With All the Kangaroos on the Loose in Texas? Prisoners join gangs, thereby becoming strong, and prey upon the weak. The short, apple-cheeked Hispanic man with the neatly combed hair and the Howdy Doody grin looked too soft to be an inmate or even a guard. A gurney was produced, but the inmate ignored it. [1] The Texas Syndicate has approximately 1,300 members, the majority of whom are Mexican American males aged between 20 and 40. Texas Chicano Brotherhood (TCB) Texas Mafia. The new boots new habit, like everything else, was duly noted by the inmates. There are only weak inmates and strong inmates. I looked up and as he was running by, he looked at melike he wanted to cry, you know? John Loomis. Recruitment is conducted through social ties and involves a background check to screen for informants.[1]. It was also a dangerous practice in light of the fact that a narrow corridor intersected the west end of the B-wing and only an officer standing at that end could see what was going on in the corridor. Everybody knew about this scum. Yet Apple Jack went unpunished: He tithed a share of his profits to the Texas Syndicate and gave the supervisors something to crow about by setting up a guard now and then. Sandoval is one of more than sixty TDCJ guards who have been indicted by McDonalds Special Prison Prosecution Unit over the past six years for felony offenses. Instead, he wrote an impassioned, handwritten 24-page letter that his mother sent to a few members of the media. killing U.S. Consulate employee Leslie Ann Enriquez Catton, College Degrees Designed for Police Officers, Best Practices for Active Shooter Response and Police Training, The Tennessee Department of Public Safety Increased Visibility, Accountability and Accuracy with Inventory Management Software Designed Specifically for Law Enforcement, Field Report: Latino Gangs In Washington State, California's Budget Fix: Cut Gang and Drug Fighters. Sandoval weighed his choices. The blacks, in turn, formed the Mandingo Warriors. On the witness stand, Sandoval suggested that the caller was someone from TDCJ Internal Affairs; more likely, he was a Texas Syndicate member delivering the message that the TS would not be amused if Sandoval blew the whistle on their activities. I dont have any money to get any stamps, Garcia explained. And in March 1991, McDonalds prosecution force indicted yet another Ellis I guard. . But to prison officials, the story is as familiar as the smell of marijuana in a cellblock and the sight of an inmate with a hand-tooled shank. Is Mexican Cartel Activity In the U.S. A few days later, on April 12, 1991, FBI agents showed up at the apartment where Sandoval had been hiding and took him to the Los Angeles County jail. The main activities of the TS are centered on drug trafficking, extortion, protection rackets, and internal discipline and contract murdering. They often use the letters "BA" or numbers "21" as their identifying symbols and tattoos. Our prisons, far from turning out reformed citizens, have instead become incubators of a statewide crime wave. Federal, state and local police as well as other government officials have succumbed to the money involved in the cannabis cancer. Respect other members; 8. Many of the gang leaders who had been doing time are now in the free world, spreading the gang network across the state, beyond prison walls. They grew quickly by recruiting violent individuals, especially from the El Paso-Juarez area. Guards could still smell burning marijuana and still see inmates giggling to themselves. Twelve days later, Texas chief prison prosecutor Travis McDonald flew to L.A., took custody of Sandoval, and flew him back to Huntsville, where he was held without bond at the Walker County jail. Gangs didnt worry about guards; they worried about each other. Eventually the guard found himself engaging in polite conversation with the inmate. Nearly all of them, however, confessed that they knew TDCJ had its share of dirty guards. Upon Arredondos return, they ushered the inmate to an infirmary cell, where a guard stood nearby, waiting for Arredondos bowels to evacuate a container of drugs. To make identification difficult for prison officials, most gang members no longer wear tattoos. The 90s and The Cartels But according to one Ellis I officer, Inmates watch everything we do. But that was if they caught him. They have their money. Full Name: Texas Syndicate; The horned hand-sign shows allegiance to . He had a one-week prison furlough coming up; the gang didnt want to spook him, fearing that he might not return to Ellis I. Just as he entered, Sandoval heard someone yell, Hes on the floor! [2] The Syndicate is the oldest Texan prison gang. Some veteran gang members claim that the Barrio Azteca gang can trace its roots in El Paso back to the original 1940s El Paso Tip gang (ept). His father died. texas syndicate hand signs In 2000, reports indicated the existence of roughly 20000 members. His assignment was one of the toughest jobs in Ellis I. I just want to take care of my business, he would tell gang members who tried to recruit him. The next day, a Sunday, the newlyweds threw their possessions into a suitcase and a grocery bag, and drove Sandovals Datsun to Conroe. The Barrio Azteca goal was to wrestle away control from the other gangs and gain dominance of the prison system. Drugs come from the free world. hornitos tequila vs patron. Then hed say, Damn, I wish I had twenty dollars to go buy a couple of beers. And Id say, Just wait here, Ill be back. And Id collect fifty dollars for him. The money chiefly comes from drugs. The main objective of the Texas Syndicate was that of offering protection to other native Texan inmates.