Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Big Drug Roundup|in Southern California

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Eight people were arrested Tuesday on federal charges of using a prison gang allied with a Michoacán drug cartel to deal drugs across the United States.

The seven-count indictment accused 13 people - six members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, three of its hangers on, and four members of La Familia Michoacana.

La Familia - the family - is an offshoot of the Zetas cartel, itself an offshoot of the Gulf Cartel.

La Familia is an overtly bizarre and violent group. Its leader calls himself El Más Loco - the craziest one - and claims to have a divine right to murder his enemies.

The members of the Mexican Mafia - a U.S. prison gang - are accused of collaborating with La Familia to sell methamphetamine in the United States.

Four of the 13 defendants were already in jail before the arrests Tuesday. One is still on the loose.

A second indictment unsealed Tuesday charged 31 defendants, including members of the Mexican Mafia and the Florencia 13 street gang, with racketeering, gun, drug and fraud offenses.

Charged in the first indictment, with their alleged affiliations, are:

Jose Rodriguez-Landa, 49, of Michoacán, (Mexican Mafia), who is in a Los Angeles County jail;

Michael Moreno, 55, of Fresno, (Mexican Mafia), arrested Tuesday;

Fred Anthony Montoya, 46, of Antioch, Calif., (Mexican Mafia), in a California state prison;

Freddie Montes, 44, of Castaic, (La Familia), arrested Tuesday;

Luis Gerardo Vega, 30, of the Pico-Union district of Los Angeles, (Mexican Mafia), in custody in a Los Angeles County jail;

Manuel Larry Jackson, 49, of Monterey Park, (Mexican Mafia), arrested Tuesday;

Jimmy Ruben Soto, 77, of Visalia, (Mexican Mafia), arrested Tuesday;

Raymond Lozano, 36, of San Diego, (Mexican Mafia associate), who is in a federal prison;

Efrain Isak Rosales, 35, (La Familia), of Michoacán, a fugitive;

Sonia Apodaca, 44, of El Monte, (Mexican Mafia), arrested Tuesday;

Claudia Garcia, 42, of the Gramercy Park district of Los Angeles, (Mexican Mafia associate), arrested Tuesday;

Adam Rios, of Slymar, (La Familia associate), arrested Tuesday; and

and Omar Hugo Robles, 30, of Sylmar, (La Familia associate), arrested Tuesday.

All 13 are charged with conspiracy; the six other counts against selected defendant involve drug-dealing: five of them methamphetamine and one marijuana.

The conspiracy charge is punishable by a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison, or 20 years if the defendant has a prior drug conviction, which about half of them do. The maximum sentence is life without parole.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...