A federal grand jury in San Francisco indicted a suspected Bay Area gang member Tuesday, July 31, 2012, for allegedly attempting to kill three special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) when they went to his residence in May seeking to arrest him on racketeering charges.
Victor Flores, aka Little Creeper, 20, of Petaluma, Calif., is charged in a second superseding indictment that adds additional counts to the charges he already faces. The indictment alleges Flores attempted to kill three HSI special agents May 3. He is further alleged to have used a firearm during that incident.
According to the second superseding indictment, Flores is a member of the 500 Block/C Street Gang, which is a racketeering enterprise. Its members and associates agreed to conduct the affairs of the enterprise through, among other crimes, narcotics trafficking, extortion, robbery and murder. The 500 Block/C Street Gang was a Norteño gang that warred not only with Sureño gangs, but also with rival Norteño gangs.
"As this incident illustrated, our special agents put their lives on the line every day in their ongoing efforts to promote public safety," said ICE Director John Morton. "We want to thank the law enforcement officers who've worked tirelessly to investigate the shootings and we are gratified the alleged perpetrator will now be held to answer for those crimes."
Of the three HSI special agents who were wounded during the May enforcement action, one has returned to duty full time. The other two are continuing to undergo therapy and both are making progress on their recovery.
The defendant has been in federal custody since May 4, when he was arraigned on charges alleged in the first superseding indictment. The defendant's next scheduled court appearance is Aug. 3 for a hearing before U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston.
The maximum statutory penalty for each count of attempted murder of a federal agent is 20 years. The maximum statutory penalty for using and possessing a firearm is life in prison.
The charges are the result of an investigation by the FBI, HSI, and the police departments of Petaluma, South San Francisco and Daly City. The prosecution is being handled by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Acadia L. Senese and W.S. Wilson Leung with the support of Kevin Costello and Daniel Charlier-Smith.
A
Texas Mexican Mafia member was sentenced Thursday, April 12, to two consecutive
life sentences in federal prison plus 10 years for federal racketeering
offenses and a murder in south Texas.
This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman, Western District of
Texas.
This
investigation was jointly conducted by the following agencies: U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the
FBI, and the Texas Department of Public Safety's Criminal Investigations
Division and Texas Rangers, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Hondo Police Department, Uvalde Police Department, and
Uvalde County Sheriff's Office.
U.S.
District Judge Alia Moses sentenced Victor Esquivel, 26, aka
"Youngster" of Eagle Pass,
Texas. According to court
documents, in July 2011, a federal jury found Esquivel guilty of several
racketeering influenced corrupt organization (RICO)-based charges including one
count of conspiracy to conduct the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern
of racketeering and two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering.
The
RICO offenses were committed in Uvalde, Eagle Pass
and Del Rio, Texas, and the surrounding area. Jose Damian
Garza was murdered in Hondo,
Texas, July 19, 2008.
Esquivel
is the 11th of 12 defendants convicted in this RICO conspiracy to be sentenced.
Before this April 12 sentencing, prison sentences handed down had ranged from
84 to 300 months. The remaining defendant, 23-year-old Javier "Javi"
Guerrero of Uvalde, Texas, is scheduled to be
sentenced later this year by U.S. District Judge Alia Moses in Del Rio.
All
12 defendants conspired to conduct the affairs of the Texas Mexican Mafia
through a pattern of racketeering activity, which included murder, solicitation
of murder, drug trafficking and extortion. The extortion took the form of
coercive collection of a 10 percent drug tax, also known as "the
dime," from drug distributors known to the members of the criminal
enterprise. This drug tax collection was enforced by robbery, serious bodily
injury or other acts of violence, including murder.
The
Texas Mexican Mafia was formed in the early 1980s by inmates in the Texas prison system.
Over the years, the gang has expanded its efforts to promote widespread
criminal activity through extortion, narcotics trafficking and violent crime.
Also known as "La Eme" or "Mexikanemi," the organization
has been the subject of numerous federal indictments in the Western District of
Texas since 1991. This investigation, however, is the first to directly target
the gang’s machinery operating along the southern international border with Mexico in the Texas
cities of Eagle Pass, Del
Rio, Crystal City, Carrizo Springs, Uvalde, Sabinal
and Hondo.
