Virtually everyone saw it coming. The gate opened. Katy Vine has been a staff writer since 2002. At the close of the eighth hour, the shift changes, but the inmates remain. Come on, Sandoval. Everybody knew about this scum. Yet Apple Jack went unpunished: He tithed a share of his profits to the Texas Syndicate and gave the supervisors something to crow about by setting up a guard now and then. It was also a dangerous practice in light of the fact that a narrow corridor intersected the west end of the B-wing and only an officer standing at that end could see what was going on in the corridor. Without drugs, gangs would have little income; without income, they would have little power over the system. Gangs didnt worry about guards; they worried about each other. According to a report a couple of years ago, children were rescued from a refrigerated van that was linked to this group, and they were thought to have been intended for organ trafficking. When one thinks of a motorcycle gang, these are the guys who come to mind. While there are many Jihadis who willingly join their ranks, they often kidnap young people and force them into service. Eventually the guard found himself engaging in polite conversation with the inmate. They will brutally violate any men they wish to join their cause and catch it on video tape. 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. 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. Many of the gang leaders who had been doing time are now in the free world, spreading the gang network across the state, beyond prison walls. Either the guard didnt know what was going on, or he did. In fact, his disciplinary record was almost spotless, and he enjoyed the privileged position of commissary clerk. Louie would love nothing more than to be a guard again, Fischer told them. 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. The gang is commonly referred to as Sindicato Tejano, Ese Te, Twisted Sister, Teresa Sanchez and Cuernos. It is important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. This case resulted from an investigation conducted by the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, Austin Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety and the Gonzales Police Department. Ranking structure : Paramilitary/Buisness Territory : Houston . Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Any violation of the rules may result in harsh penalties, including death. He did not turn himself in. Gang initiation typically has a homeboy requirement, that is, one of the other members can testify that they know the character of the prospective recruit and thus whether or not he deserves initiation. (Fong 41) This requirement, which exists in the case of the Texas Syndicate and Mexican Mafia for example, serves as a means of sponsorship, so therefore anyone interested in joining the gang, their trustworthiness can be verified if a current gang member is familiar with them. He was arrested for driving while intoxicated, following a one-car accident that left his limbs temporarily paralyzed. News on all your favorite celebs, reality TV, and movies. The Department of Public Safety has released its 2015 Texas Gang Threat Assessment report. Such communication is often through letters and telephone calls. Joe Arredondo was one of those inmates, an arrogant squirt barely over five feet tall who frequently provoked guards but never got in trouble for it. They have their prostitution, their gambling, their extortion. Take over the hallway for me, Sandoval said to his subordinate while handing him his keys. The task would range from a serious assault to murder. Plain and simple, many young people trying to get into this group are instructed to kill a member of a rival gang. Reminded that our earlier on-the-record, on-tape conversation contradicted this, he said, I have my life to think about.I made my mistakes. The Texas Syndicate, including its leadership, membership and associates, constitute an "enterprise" as defined by Title 18, United States Code, Section 1961(4), that is, a group of individuals associated in . Although, they do have alliances with some Hispanic gangs. Can I still get Beyonc tickets? And the courier must possess a particular power: He must be able to walk through walls. [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. 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. Some rules were just too silly to heed. I have the Experience and Reputation to Fight for Your Rights. The decision was reached: Arredondo would be taken down. It was not the most hospitable climate for trust, which was something Sandoval felt inclined to consider when Armando Garcia and Vicente held out a letter and asked Sandoval to mail it for them. To pay for his legal expenses, his mother sold the family home. After release from prison, a TS member is required to contact the high-ranking member in the geographical area where the released member intends to reside. That statistic does not come close to reflecting the actual number of TDCJ employees suspected of involvement in corrupt activities. Youre telling us you saw nothing? 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. The quality of cocaine is frequently discussed in terms of how pretty or how good the girls are. Payments for drugs are often called receipts and cheese.. 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. In Del Rio, a federal judge sentenced 29 Uvalde/Hondo-area Texas Syndicate (TS) members over the past two weeks to federal prison, including four defendants to life imprisonment, for various racketeering and drug trafficking offenses committed in Uvalde, San Antonio and the surrounding areas announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, Jr., and Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs . Tango Blast, Texas Syndicate, Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples and MS-13 all were identified as active in human smuggling operations in 2014. He had long since survived the new boots six months of hell. Syndicate Initiation : Over The Cliffs, And Through The Woods - New WordJoin this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW2N5MbCNEM. The next day, Sandoval recalled, I walked into work feeling good. The enterprise constitutes an ongoing organization whose members function as a continuing unit for a common purpose of achieving the objectives of the enterprise. Some are disgusting, some are dehumanizing and shocking, while others are just confusing. Tejanos were being preyed upon by California prison gangs in some of the most notorious California . It revealed a world where drugs and weapons are freely available to inmates, where murderous prison gangs control inmate behavior far more than prison guards do, and where the guardians of law and order have just as much trouble distinguishing right from wrong as do the inmates they are watching. Uneasy truces between gangs have developed. The so-called "hybrid members" allow the gangs to grow their empires with increased influence both in prisons and on the streets. Other gangs also sprang up: the Hermanos de Pistoleros, the Self-Defense Family, the Texas Mafia, the Nuestra Carnales. We assembled and maintain a team of the best talent with a keen eye on the future. His assistant wardens run the building. Indeed, Peterson said to me that his units drug problem isnt rampant, but he also acknowledged that much has escaped his attention over the years. It criticized TDCJs good ol boy system, which Sandoval claimed has ruled with an iron fist since the penal system was first established. Hispanic guards, he said, were either coerced into quitting or found doing something wrong. Supervisors treated inmates like animals. He further wrote, I am not the only one who worked there that knows that TDCJ is linked to the gangs and their illegal activities. The guards were hired. Sources:NY Post, Free Republic, Vice, LA Times, PBS, VOA News, Daily Caller, Boston.com, International Business Times. The field for their activities, though fertile, was finite, thus making turf wars inevitable. Furthermore, that degree of control has carried to communities in which TS members reside. Id say about eighty percent of the inmates knew he was dealing clamed one inmate who was close to the action. While the Texas Syndicate is primarily a prison-based gang, they have many members who operate on the outside. 'Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild' is at its lowest price yet, W&P Porter bowl review: A container that makes office lunch easy, Get a wireless iWalk portable charger for under $25 on Amazon, 5 of the best umbrellas for gale-force winds, Save on this Mandalorian LEGO set ahead of the season 3 premiere. On the fourth day of the Sandoval trial, as if to punctuate the implicit warning in the testimony that gangs till thrived within the system, a member of the Mexican Mafia stabbed a Hermano de Pistolero to death at the Eastham Unit. Sandoval marveled at the river of red the inmate had left behind. His assignment was one of the toughest jobs in Ellis I. By the time 21-year-old Luis Sandoval, a new boot at Huntsvilles Ellis I Unit in the summer of 1985, was approached by an inmate with an unlit cigarette, his ears were still ringing from a more desperate request he had heard during his first week on the job. Violent retribution is an important activity of the enterprise. Prisons, crammed with thrill-seekers and outright junkies, provide the ultimate captive consumers. Although obtaining TS-related tattoos was once a common practice, some TS members now avoid obtaining tattoos in order to shield their association with the TS from law enforcement. In Del Rio, three Texas Syndicate members from Uvalde, TX, face up to life in federal prison after a federal jury convicted them last night of various violations of federal racketeering offenses committed in Uvalde, San Antonio and the surrounding areas announced United States Attorney Robert Pitman. Sandoval lied: No, sir. Contradicting this claim, Internal Affairs investigator Dale Schaper took the stand and read his report of the night Sandoval was arrested. Since the late 1970s, the TDCJ has seen a gradual increase in TS-related activities within the system and the Texas Syndicate remains one of the main security threats within the TDCJ. The Joint Crime Information Center thanks these agencies and centers for contributing to the production of this assemss ent. One juror phoned Sandovals brother that afternoon and told him that in her view the case against Sandoval was racially motivated. App. The rules of the Texas Syndicate prohibit the distribution of information regarding fellow members to law enforcement. I had the burden lifted from my shoulders., You have these inmates, said an Ellis I correctional officer, where you write em up [for rule infractions] and nothing happens. But Ellis I officials, like so many other wardens in the post-Ruiz era, were playing a numbers game. 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. Like a few other gangs that made it to our list, there are a few different ways to get into Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). But they werent enough: A guard like Luis Sandoval would be assigned to a hallway filled with hundreds of inmates. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. 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. Then, the new recruit is expected to participate in the kill. That beating often takes the form of "running the gauntlet," in which a recruit is forced to run between two lines of members who are armed withwellwhatever weapons they can get their hands on. Alcohol was forbidden, yet chock, or homemade wine, was made in a variety of ways in cells, the crudest method being by letting food wrapped in a plastic bag fester in a toilet tank. The five-foot-six, soft-voiced young man had spent most of his life in the South Texas town of Alice, where blacks were scarcely seen. 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. Prison units are individually controlled by a local chairman and vice chairman. He lit cigarettes, which led to other small favors, which led to bigger ones. Some of the states most violent criminals were housed there. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Then he returned to Arredondo. The letter was not what one might expect from a former prison guard. In 2006, Andres Garcia was arrested for allegedly luring George Garza, a member of rival Valluco prison gang, and then stabbing him to death. [1] The Texas Syndicate has approximately 1,300 members, the majority of whom are Mexican American males aged between 20 and 40. The United Blood Nation, who still operate to this day in New York, was a gang started back in the early 1990's to protect members from Puerto Rican and Hispanic gangs, such as the Latin Kings and Netas. Youre telling us its a coincidence that you werent down at the end of the hallway? TS rules are strictly enforced, primarily resulting in violent attacks on and executions of TS members who violate their rules. Now it was May 1991, and Sandoval was behind bars, his fate in the hands of a Huntsville jury. He previously covered real estate, economic development, retail and tourism. 8/21/2008) (Tex. That afternoon, Ellis I warden Jerry Peterson called Sandoval into his office to congratulate him on a fine job. One of the first things that often happen when these kids are taken is that the local leaders will take them back to their villages and force them tokill their parents. The Texas Syndicate (Spanish: Sindicato Tejano) is a mostly Texas -based street and prison gang consisting of predominantly Mexican American membership. 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