Dozens of Mexican mafia members arrested in California crackdown
Source: The Guardian
Prosecutors say 43 people indicted on charges including murder, kidnapping, extortion and drug trafficking
More than two dozen members and associates of the Mexican mafia were arrested during an early morning crackdown in southern California, federal authorities said on Thursday.
The FBI and other federal and local agencies executed search and arrest warrants at locations mostly in Orange county, south of Los Angeles, according to the US attorney’s office.
A total of 43 people have been indicted on charges including murder, kidnapping, extortion, running an illegal gambling operation and drug trafficking, prosecutors said.
The Mexican mafia was started in the 1950s at a juvenile jail and grew to an international criminal organization that controls smuggling, drug sales and extortion from inside California’s penal system.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/23/mexican-mafia-arrests-california
What a haul this one was
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, is a predominantly Mexican American prison gang and criminal organization in the United States.[1][3] Despite its name, the Mexican Mafia has no origins in Mexico and is entirely a U.S. prison-based organization. Law enforcement officials report that the Mexican Mafia is the deadliest and most powerful gang within the California prison system.[28]Dirty Cop Member of Mexican Mafia
Pesina was a police officer in Balcones Heights, a small city of 3,000 people near San Antonio. But he also claimed allegiance to the Mexican Mafia, a notorious gang known for extortion and precision killings.
Pesina sold drugs for the Texas branch of the Mexican Mafia and paid a weekly tax, or “dime,” for his tattoo parlor, according to court documents. Beneath his police uniform, his body was covered with gang tattoos.
In 2014, federal investigators were probing Pesina’s ties to the Texas Mexican Mafia and getting close to making an arrest that could send him to prison for years. But gang members who learned about his police job from Facebook sentenced Pesina to death instead. https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/16/texas-officers-killing-exposes-ruthless-inner-work/
They formed as a prison gang to counteract the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. They're all pretty much of the same cloth...
