Violence skyrocketed. Many West Side youths went to prison.
Among them were Johnny and Gilbert Agudo. They began using PCP, became hardened gang members and were in and out of prison, authorities said. Johnny became president of the 7th Street Locos; Gilbert was president of Little Counts.
New immigrants began moving in. They took the menial jobs that neighborhood youths had counted as theirs. Old-time Mexican American families felt invaded.
Meanwhile, from prison the Mexican Mafia, known as the Eme, Spanish for the letter M, imposed new rules on Southern California Latino street gangs.
Through the 1990s, Eme associates directed gangs to tax drug dealers in their barrios. Disobeying meant death.
West Side gangs acquiesced.
"I saw a change within the gangs," said Leo Duarte, a native West Sider and retired Mexican Mafia expert with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "When an [Eme member] sends orders, they comply. Every time somebody got out on parole, orders came with them: Get crews going, start taxing."
The Eme replaced Kaiser and Santa Fe as the influential economic organization in West Side life, Duarte said. Obedience to it overrode barrio loyalty.
Who had "the keys" -- Eme-ordained authority to run barrio taxing -- became the predominant issue for once-independent gangs, Duarte said.
In 1999, Johnny Agudo was arrested with guns as he prepared to carry out an Eme-ordered killing, Kersey said in an interview. To reduce his prison sentence, he told police that Salvador "Toro" Hernandez, a parolee, had guns and drugs at his house, Kersey said.
Hernandez, from Rancho Cucamonga, is a reputed Eme member who controls West Side drug dealing, according to Kersey, Duarte and West Side gang members. He was arrested with guns and drugs and went to prison for their possession, Kersey said.
In court, gang members and Kersey alleged that Hernandez allegedly put a "greenlight" -- a death warrant -- on Johnny Agudo. A gang that doesn't execute a member greenlighted by the Eme faces a greenlight on all its members, Kersey said in an interview.
Gilbert Agudo had "the keys" to the West Side, Ramirez testified in court. Gilbert volunteered to kill his brother, Ramirez testified.
No one believed he would, Ramirez said
"Gilbert was very good at politics," Kersey said in an interview. "He was in the midst of talking people out of killing Johnny."
