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Mexican Mafia Busted in Imperial County |
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Written by George Gale
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Thursday, 30 August 2007 |
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 (Law Enforcement takes a bite out of the Mexican Mafia)…..District Attorney Gilbert Otero says it was a major bite, in Imperial County. Federal, State and Local law enforcement officers began executing warrants at dawn Thursday morning.
The warrants were the result of a 46 count indictment handed down by the San Diego Grand Jury, and culminated a 20 month investigation into the operation of what is known as the Mexican Mafia in Imperial County. When it was over 23 had been arrested on the original indictment. Rudy Ferrell of Brawley was also arrested on a separate conspiracy indictment. Otero said all those arrested were major players in the very violent organization. Richard Buchanan, suspected to be a leader, was arrested in San Diego, as was Ruby Jacqueline Mendez. The alleged Imperial County leader, Patrick Ralph Ponce was arrested at his girlfriend’s house. His brother Max Jr. was also taken into custody. Other El Centro arrests included Eden Portugal Macias, Judy Ann Huerta, Mark Villasenor, Juan Antonio Hornback, Anthony Gabriel Valles and Jose Luis Espinoza. Arrested in Calexico were Raul Antonio Cruz, Jaime Perez, Gerardo Robles, Raul Vega Mejia, David Pael Martinez, Refugio Castellanos Servin, Jorge Cuevas Mendoza and Victor Ruby. Manuel Solarez was arrested in Brawley. Luis Hector Munoz Jr. and Antonio Padilla were taken into custody in Holtville. Jose Zepeda was arrested in Calipatria and Juan Carlos Cordero taken into custody in Heber. Otero said three individuals from San Diego, 3 from El Centro and one from Mexicali were part of the indictment, but are still at large. The D.A. Said all arrests went down without incident, and nobody was injured. The organization apparently used the City Cab Company as their phantom business to launder their drug money. Otero said all face various charges, but each one could receive life sentences, if convicted on the charges. The charges ranged from extortion, to firearms to narcotics sales to assaults and solicitations for murder. The District Attorney said not all charges were listed, mainly because it suspected many of those arrested did things officials don’t yet know about. Otero commended the cooperation between the law enforcement agencies, saying the operation, nicknamed “Operation Gangland” would not have been possible without the participation of each and every organization. |
