The gang, called Rancho San Pedro, is ‘one of the most active and violent gangs’ in the Los Angeles Harbor area, the FBI says.
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.
The gang, called Rancho San Pedro, is “one of the most active and violent gangs” in the Los Angeles Harbor area, the FBI said in a statement in announcing the arrests. It follows a years-long investigation by the FBI, LAPD, and Department of Homeland Security that led to the identification of individuals connected to the gang, which was accused of other various criminal activities in the area.
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.
The Mexican Mafia, sometimes called La eMe, is a prison-based gang that has long been engaged in criminal activities, according to a statement issued by the Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier this year. The gang was formed in the Folsom State Prison in California before growing within state and federal prison systems, the DOJ says.
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.
