Mexican Mafia

He was a 16-year-old inmate doing time at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, Calif., who came up with the idea of forming a Latino "gang of gangs" inside the prison walls. These convicts would put aside Mexican American street gang rivalries, protect themselves from overzealous guards and band together to battle black and white inmates.

Jason Harrington, wanted on a battery charge in Alameda County, was caught after a chase across rooftops in the Baja California fishing village of San Felipe. Alleged child molester Father Joseph Briceno of Phoenix was handcuffed amid a crowd of parishioners in Mexicali. Tony "The Big Homie" Rodriguez, a Mexican Mafia boss from Indio, hurled threats after being hauled off a street corner by Mexican police posing as junkyard dealers. All three fugitives had a similar escape plan: Flee to Baja California and leave their troubles at the border.

The sentencing of six Florencia 13 gang members to life in prison appears to bring to a close a prolonged and terrifying spate of violence in the Florence-Firestone district allegedly brought on by orders from a prison gang member in solitary confinement 700 miles away. Beginning in 2004, the unincorporated Los Angeles County area north of Watts was the site of one of the region's worst gang sieges since the early 1990s, evolving into what some residents felt was a race war. The violence left dozens of people dead, including many with no gang affiliation, and required enormous county resources to combat.

The sentencing of six Florencia 13 gang members to life in prison appears to bring to a close a prolonged and terrifying spate of violence in the Florence-Firestone district allegedly brought on by orders from a prison gang member in solitary confinement 700 miles away. Beginning in 2004, the unincorporated Los Angeles County area north of Watts was the site of one of the region's worst gang sieges since the early 1990s, evolving into what some residents felt was a race war. The violence left dozens of people dead, including many with no gang affiliation, and required enormous county resources to combat.

Eight alleged members of the San Diego County Mexican Mafia prison gang pleaded not guilty to charges of drug manufacturing, extortion, kidnapping and murder. The three women and five men, who appeared in court Monday, were the first of 35 gang members and associates charged in a 52-count indictment. Entering their pleas were Sergio Pulido Perez, 47; Leonard Parmer, 19; Denise Ortega, 27; Pamela Thompson, 39; Jaime Lopez Jr.

A day before Thanksgiving 1998, Donald "Pato" Schubert was shot to death in the carport of his apartment building in the San Gabriel Valley city of Rosemead. A member of the Lomas Rosemead street gang pleaded guilty to killing Schubert, a plumber and former gang member. With that, the case was filed away, forgotten by nearly everyone except Schubert's family. Then, earlier this month, the case suddenly returned to life.

A young man who once toted a book bag and attended classes at Cal State Los Angeles testified in federal court Tuesday that he authorized the executions of as many as 40 people as a rising star in the Mexican Mafia. Max Torvisco, 24, took the stand as the government's first witness in the trial of 11 suspected Mexican Mafia members and associates, describing the organization as the "gang of all gangs."

Amid sobs from some relatives, three more members of the Mexican Mafia were sentenced Thursday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after their conviction this year on federal racketeering and conspiracy charges. A fourth man, Joe "Shakey Joe" Hernandez, 43, received a lighter prison term, 32 years, partly because he is only an associate and not a full-fledged member of the secretive prison gang. U.S. District Judge Ronald S. W.

A former Mexican Mafia member who admitted carrying out a number of crimes while working as an undercover FBI informant was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles federal court to 30 years in prison. John Turscak, 30, expressed bitter disappointment with his sentence. He told U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz, "I didn't commit those crimes for kicks. I did them because I had to if I wanted to stay alive. I told that to the [FBI] agents and they just said, 'Do what you have to do.'

Re "U.S. Indicts 22 in Probe of Mexican Mafia," May 2: Stop me if I'm wrong, but don't the politicians keep telling us that it is in order to prevent the crimes of "narcotics distribution, gambling and prostitution" that we put people in prison to begin with? If the U.S. justice and penal systems can't prevent crimes from being committed in prison, what makes anybody think they can control the streets? PETER VOGEL Inglewood

A reputed Mexican Mafia leader who prosecutors said once tried to seize control of drug sales in Norwalk and the San Gabriel Valley has been charged with orchestrating a large-scale extortion scheme, according to authorities. Ralph "Perico" Rocha, 42, was ordered held in lieu of $4-million bail at the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles. Rocha was arrested without incident Nov. 19 as he was about to leave his Moreno Valley home, said Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.

A Covina defense attorney accused of serving as a liaison between a violent Los Angeles-based street gang and the Mexican Mafia was ordered held without bail Friday by a federal judge. Prosecutors argued that Isaac Guillen, indicted as part of a broad racketeering case against a clique of the 18th Street gang known as the Columbia Lil Cycos, was a danger to the community and a flight risk.

When a stray bullet from a gang member's gun struck 3-week-old Luis Angel Garcia in the heart and killed him in 2007, police, politicians and ordinary Angelenos expressed outrage over the infant's death. But they weren't the only ones. Members of the Mexican Mafia, the notorious prison-based organization that authorities say controls Latino street gangs, demanded that those responsible be killed, according to an indictment unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.

Federal authorities on Tuesday unsealed an indictment charging more than three dozen alleged members and associates of the notorious 18th Street gang with racketeering and murder, including the death of a 3-week-old baby. The indictment also accused a Covina attorney of being an intermediary between the gang and an imprisoned member of the Mexican Mafia. -- Scott Glover

He was a 16-year-old inmate doing time at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, Calif., who came up with the idea of forming a Latino "gang of gangs" inside the prison walls. These convicts would put aside Mexican American street gang rivalries, protect themselves from overzealous guards and band together to battle black and white inmates.

A reputed Mexican Mafia leader who prosecutors said once tried to seize control of drug sales in Norwalk and the San Gabriel Valley has been charged with orchestrating a large-scale extortion scheme, according to authorities. Ralph "Perico" Rocha, 42, was ordered held in lieu of $4-million bail at the Men's Central Jail in Los Angeles. Rocha was arrested without incident Nov. 19 as he was about to leave his Moreno Valley home, said Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore.