Eventually, however, Vicente and Garcia began to ask for more than a light. Tejanos were being preyed upon by California prison gangs in some of the most notorious California . . Our nation-wide commitment to reducing gun crime in America, Report Waste, Fraud, Abuse or Misconduct to the Inspector General, Find Help and Information for Crime Victims, Register, Apply for Permits, or Request Records. Then, the new recruit is expected to participate in the kill. Not everyone was so sympathetic, however. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. For all of Sandovals claims that the system was making a sacrificial lamb out of him, the system came to his rescue in the end. I didnt do it, Sandoval announced to me in a recent phone conversation. Or if they cared to enforce the rule. According to a US Justice Department press release: Texas Syndicate, a criminal organization whose members and associates engage in acts of violence, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion and narcotics distribution. A TS member will attempt to discover the evidence that will be used against the fellow member or discover the names of the witness of witnesses who will provide testimony in trial. He was arrested for driving while intoxicated, following a one-car accident that left his limbs temporarily paralyzed. Theyd say, Dont mess with him., The new boot thereby became a feared boss among bosses. After the lockdown, the murder rate plunged. So it may be a week or a month or a yearbut that hit is on.. Theyre coming in from work, theyre coming out of the tanks to go eat or recreate or go to school or go to the chapel, said Sandoval. a. being sexed in. Nearly all of them, however, confessed that they knew TDCJ had its share of dirty guards. Each gang had its own hierarchy and its own rules; each member was not permitted to leave his gang, even outside of prison, except by his own death. Prisoners join gangs, thereby becoming strong, and prey upon the weak. They are affiliated with local prison gangs and often stock their ranks with young children, some in their early teens (not an uncommon practice for gangs in general). The rules of the Texas Syndicate prohibit the distribution of information regarding fellow members to law enforcement. The investigators didnt tell me much, nor was I particularly inquisitive, he said. Drugs come from the free world. The main activities of the TS are centered on drug trafficking, extortion, protection rackets, and internal discipline and contract murdering. In his first year on the job, Luis Sandoval found himself delivering drugs to a self-described drug runner on behalf of the states deadliest prison gang, the Texas Syndicate. Plain and simple, many young people trying to get into this group are instructed to kill a member of a rival gang. And Sandoval welcomed his company. Given the size of the gang and the number of areas in which they operate, there are a few initiation rituals. If they dont make this hit, theyll become the person to get hit. The Latin Kings, a gang that started out back in the 1950's in Chicago, are among the largest gangs in the world. Armando Garcia had seen this coming. Yes, he had mailed Vicentes letters, had cashed two money orders for the inmate, and on three different occasions, had delivered packages from a parking lot to a telephone booth. Likewise the gangs allow inmates the opportunity to be free from isolation and as a result to have a support system. They will brutally violate any men they wish to join their cause and catch it on video tape. 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. Gang initiation is determined either by a formula system, whereas if the member completes all the requirements (which sometimes include killing another person) and the other basic requirements (such as race, ethnicity etc), they are automatically initiated. The Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners. But as the weeks rolled on, as the dos and donts of the training manual began to look more and more like some bureaucrats idea of a joke, his resolve cratered. Texas Syndicate, a criminal organization whose members and associates engage in acts of violence, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion and narcotics distribution.. The so-called "hybrid members" allow the gangs to grow their empires with increased influence both in prisons and on the streets. But the first six months is hell. Sandoval was determined to tough it out. (Officials also say the Texas Syndicate is far more selective and does not, for example, recruit homosexuals.) Ive seen about five new boots take one step out of the control riot-gate and into the main hallway and turn around and say, See you later, said Sandoval. Sandoval picked up the marijuana and smuggled it into Ellis Ifrightened every step of the way, he told me, that someone might notice the smell of marijuana and search him. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The task would range from a serious assault to murder. Meet the Barrio Azteca gang, considered one of the most dangerous criminal organizations in Texas. And were there in it. But they werent enough: A guard like Luis Sandoval would be assigned to a hallway filled with hundreds of inmates. Within the prison system, there is a widely agreed upon initiation requirement, and it is that a new recruit must kill someone. Our prisons, far from turning out reformed citizens, have instead become incubators of a statewide crime wave. The drug trade was lucrative, and Sandoval always seemed to be hurting for money. The Farmer.For this one farmer the worries are over, lie down and rest your head, Your time has been and struggles enough, put the tractor in the shed. Their leader is one of the FBI's 10 most wanted criminals. Attorneys Matt Harding and Dan Guess are prosecuting this case on behalf of the Government. Coded language is commonly utilized during drug related phone calls. A gurney was produced, but the inmate ignored it. To pay for his legal expenses, his mother sold the family home. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. There are examples of people dying or being seriously injured during initiation stunts gone wrong. The inmate staggered forward, blood gushing from his head and neck. Are you on trial or is TDC on trial?. Beneath them in the gang hierarchy are captains, lieutenants, sergeants of arms, and numerous soldiers. Around the same time, prison officials expressed concern about the fifty or sixty members of the two Los Angeles-based black street gangs, the Bloods and the Crips, that had recently entered the system. (After the trial, Sandoval became less talkative on the subject of drugs. Give me your shirt, he ordered an inmate and with it applied pressure to the wound. The first Texas prison guard ever to be tried for the murder of an inmate seemed eager to describe, to me and to the jurors, the pressures and temptations a correctional officer faces. It generally signifies new membership into a club or group, and while some examples of initiation can be fun and bring people together, others are downright traumatizing. The enterprise (hereinafter the Texas Syndicate, TS, or the enterprise) engages in, and its activities affected, interstate and foreign commerce. The moment Garcia asked Sandoval to bring marijuana into TDCJ, it did not take superhuman deductive powers for the guard to figure out the Hispanic inmates clientele. The Texas Syndicate, a prison gang that operates in and outside of penitentiaries, is considered by state law-enforcement officials to be among the most dangerous criminal organizations in. Every inmate was confined to his cell, stripped of recreation and visitation privileges, and fed sandwiches that guards tossed through the bars of the cell. A long, metal objecta homemade knife, or shankprotruded from his jugular. The TS will not hesitate to kill anyone who interferes with the business of the gang or who commits a violation of Texas Syndicate rules. The Texas Syndicate, more than La Eme or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners, such as the "Border . However, it counts among its rivals some cartel heavyweights such as the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by notorious drug lordJoaqun "El Chapo" Guzmn, and the Jalisco New Generation Cartel. The 18 second beating is a theme for this gang, and they often employ it as a disciplinary measure when proper respect isn't shown to a leading member or if a member goes against the gang's rules. Sandoval weighed his choices. Their initiation ritual for new recruits includes a pledge but also a bath in a mixture of goat's blood, urine, and tripe. The strict rules and harsh discipline governing the Texas Syndicate help insure that the organizations members and associates function as a continuing unit despite any changes in membership. First, they have to kill a rival gang member, and once their kill has been confirmed, they are brutally beaten by other members while local leaders count to thirteen slowly. (Today, Sandoval says that statement was coerced.) But he also acknowledged that he had made mistakes; and to me, though not to the jury, he confessed that one of those mistakes was bringing drugs into Ellis I. This allows members to function with less oversight, especially within the prison system. He had long since survived the new boots six months of hell. Officials knew this meant that every day from three-thirty until after chow time, activities in the narrow corridor went unmonitored. While accurate numbers are difficult to come up with (do we include associates or just full members? While there are many Jihadis who willingly join their ranks, they often kidnap young people and force them into service. The defendants, allegedly, conspired to distribute methamphetamine/heroin in Austin, San Marcos, Luling, Gonzales, New Braunfels, Hutto, Kenedy, Seguin, Bastrop and Tuscaloosa, AL, since January 2018. b. making a financial donation . Just like in the free world. The field for their activities, though fertile, was finite, thus making turf wars inevitable. No one, he seemed to be suggesting, was capable of telling the truth about Luis Sandovalnot even Sandoval himself. Had Schapers investigation been thorough, this denial might have seemed implausible to the jury. It took months before someone looked closely at the gas mask featured on the patch and realized that every correctional officer at the unit had been wearing the letters TS across his forehead. He called his mother, who begged him to turn himself in. The Bloods, Crips, Surenos and Latin Kings are the most active street gangs, while Tango Blast cliques in San Antonio (Orejones) and Austin (La Capirucha) rule the prisons, along with the Texas Mexican Mafia and Aryan Brotherhood. Joe Arredondo was taken to a hospital in Huntsville. But Arredondo had brought back nothing. Federal, state and local authorities have arrested 17 members and associates of the Texas Syndicate in connection with a methamphetamine/heroin trafficking operation in central Texas announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash, FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, and Gonzales . Theyre gonna say you were in on it. Arturo Gallegos Castrellon, pictured, is serving a life sentence in U.S. federal prison for leading the assassins. [3] While the gangs maintains its headquarters in California, there are around 1,000 members in prisons and jails throughout Texas, with many others operating on the outside. Syndicate Initiation : Over The Cliffs, And Through The Woods - New WordJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW2N5MbCNEM. By the mid-1800s, there were street gangs in _____. Throughout the Sandoval trial, guards on the witness stand were asked if they had ever stopped a gang member from murdering an inmate. Perhaps it was because Vicente was so quiet and servile or perhaps he had such a talent for lingering that the porters simply paid him no mind. Hes bleeding! He whirled and burst into the B-wing hallway. A host of documents relating to the trial, as well as interviews with numerous sources involved in the case, have provided chilling details of how Texas prisons really work today. And as you work there, you tend to become a product of your environment. State, No. McCool opened the picket gate to allow Sandoval into the rest room. New recruits who hoped to join the Knights Templar have been forced to eat a child's heart in order to prove their loyalty to the cause. They have more than one ritual to get into the gang, but two of the most common are taking a brutal beating (getting jumped in) and in other cases, recruits are told to murder someone. A member who has fallen out of favor might also be referred to in the feminine form. 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. Finally, in areas in which the Gangster Disciples (a rival gang) operate, groups of Latin Kings may drive around showing GD hand symbols and then carry out a drive-by shooting on anyone who flashes the signal back. Either way, Sandoval was out. And all you see is white shirts. (Fong 41) The fact that the gangs would still find ways to take advantage of people not qualified for their gang, is enough evidence that the gangs in the prison system, find their ways in maintaining power over their victims. Compared with Luis Sandovals quiet life in Alice, Ellis I must have seemed like an opium den. And theres always somebody, the ex-drug runner told me, wholl do something for you.. The caller, known as El Carpintero, was a convicted child molester from El Paso who nonetheless had managed to obtain a job, under an assumed name, as an x-ray technician at Ellis I. El Carpintero instructed Sandoval to drive to a location in Huntsville where a sack containing marijuana awaited. His assignment was one of the toughest jobs in Ellis I. Well, so does the inmate. Leave them blank to get signed up. Barrio Azteca members are suspected of carrying out the March 2010 assassination of a U.S. Consulate employee, her husband and the husband of another U.S. Consulate employee. Sandovals apparent relationship with the gang did not escape the attention of the Ellis I population. Upon their release from prison, gang members returned to Texas, renamed themselves the Texas Syndicate (TS), committed crimes, and wound up in TDCJ, where they developed an extensive network of drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and contract murder behind Texas prison walls. It is a method of psychologically breaking a kid and has been used in many war zones in recent years, including Joseph Kony in Uganda and the Sierra Leone conflict. DPS also cited the 2014 indictment of 55 Barrio Azteca members and associates as handicapping the gang's effectiveness. If you fill out the first name, last name, or agree to terms fields, you will NOT be added to the newsletter list. [4][5], The Texas Syndicate was established at Folsom State Prison in California in 1978 in direct response to the other California prison gangs, notably the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia, which were attempting to prey on native Texas inmates. When one thinks of a motorcycle gang, these are the guys who come to mind. Coded language is frequently utilized in order to mislead law enforcement as to the true message contained in the letters or telephone calls. Jurors convicted 38-year-old Raul "Fatboy . Between full members and associates both within and outside of the prison system, the group has an estimated membership of around 10,000, and as the name implies, it is a white gang. If you are facing serious criminal charges, you need a lawyer who is prepared to go to trial, Law Office of Sylvia A. Cavazos 110 Broadway St.Suite 210San Antonio, TX 78205 San Antonio Office, Phone:210-468-1130Toll Free: 800-681-6406Fax: 888-566-7765, 2023 Law Office of Sylvia A. Cavazos All Rights Reserved, Disclaimer| Site Map| Privacy Policy |Business Development Solutions by FindLaw, part of Thomson Reuters. I looked up and as he was running by, he looked at melike he wanted to cry, you know? Upon conviction of the drug trafficking charge: Castilleja, Luna, Salazar, Salas and Alvarez face between ten years and life in federal prison; Jimenez-Jaimes, Carrasco, Cantu, Accord, John Vera, Josh Vera, Anzaldua, Medina, Villarreal and May face between five and 40 years in federal prison; Armstead and Klasing face up to 20 years in federal prison based on their involvement, drug type and drug amount involved. Arredondo was a Texas Syndicate member. The letter was not what one might expect from a former prison guard. Im on trial, sir, conceded the polite young man in the pin-striped suit who sat in the witness stand. The Texas Syndicate (Spanish: Sindicato Tejano) is a mostly Texas -based street and prison gang consisting of predominantly Mexican American membership. Garcia, a four-time loser serving a life sentence for repeated theft and heroin offenses, was one of the friendlier inmates: 33 years old but actually grandfatherly in demeanora gentleman, you could almost sayquiet and unthreatening. This gang is one of the most notorious out there and has even been mentioned directly by Donald Trump, who has pledged to eradicate them in particular. In the tenements across the street from the Texas A&I University stadium lived a fifteen-year-old girl named Veronica, whom he married on June 22, 1985, after learning that TDCJ had accepted his application for employment as a correctional officer, or CO. His refusal would prompt the reply, Then Ill tell your supervisor about when you lit my cigarette., At first the young guard spurned the inmates who pestered him, and threatened to write them up for disciplinary action. Sandoval got up, ran into the hallway, and yelled fight twice. Come on, Sandoval. When he sent the letter off to his mother, he knew it wouldnt be long before law enforcement officials discovered his whereabouts. By now he was a CO III, an old boot, and he had trained many of the guards who now worked with him. 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. Like any good businessman, Garcia kept a close eye on the marketplace. Video cameras monitor the hallways. There are members in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and of course, all across Asia. The rituals, beliefs, and practices of this group came to light in the United States after journalist Hunter S. Thompson spent a year with a California chapter of the gang, publishing a book (amazing read, by the way) titledHell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. The other factor that has led guards to traffic in drugs is the peculiar morality of Ellis I, where rules are never universally applied and the use of drugs is so widespread that officials have to knowand acceptthat prison guards are involved in the supply chain. I have the Experience and Reputation to Fight for Your Rights. Two years after lighting his first cigarette, Sandoval was arrested and charged with murder for allegedly aiding a gang plot to kill an inmate. Members of the Texas Syndicate regularly hold meetings (sometimes referred to as barbeques or juntas) where members discuss and vote on important decisions. And, their numbers total in the thousands on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. It is understood that members and prospects of the TS may receive a telephone call and instructions to commit a crime including homicide for the Texas Syndicate at any time. He had lied to his own investigator, just as inmates and Internal Affairs had lied to the jurors. A week later another juror wrote Sandoval a four-page letter, expressing her chagrin that he had been put through all the agony. Nothing during three weeks of by-the-book lectures at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice training academy had prepared him for the helplessness he felt as a lone correctional officer constantly surrounded by violent criminals. This is a carousel. Without a doubt, the Texas Invitational ("TI") is the pinnacle of high-caliber automotive airfield competition in the United States. 01-07-00443-CR (Tex. 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