Tango Blast, Texas Syndicate, Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples and MS-13 all were identified as active in human smuggling operations in 2014. We want to sustain Latin Americas largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources. Bruno Angel Rangel, 38, allegedly was a former high-ranking Barrio Azteca leader who allied himself with La Linea in the current conflict between the crime organizations, police said. And, their numbers total in the thousands on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border. RELATED:Why 'El Chapo's' beauty queen wife says she is 'afraid for his life'. We then verify, write and edit, providing the tools to generate real impact. The gang's key ally is the Jurez Cartel and its armed wing, La Linea. Vilnius. The gang is highly structured and has an estimated membership of 2,000. Galindo was one of the ranking members of the BA who would receive laundered funds and disperse it within the Texas State prison system to further the criminal goals of the enterprise. [18] Today, the gang has expanded into a large criminal gang with presence in both the United States and Mexico, besetting by drug trafficking and human smuggling. Twenty-four of those defendants have pleaded guilty, one defendant committed suicide while imprisoned during his trial and six others are pending extradition from Mexico. To update those lists, members and other leaders would contact Galindo on his contraband prison cell phone to verify the status of persons claiming to be BA members and ensure that they were in good standing with the criminal organization. The killings angered the White House, who had quietly allowed the families of the U.S. consulate workers to live across the border in Texas even before they were killed. They were sentenced yesterday in the Western District of Texas. Evidence was presented that Gonzales and Garcia were BA soldiers, whose duties included distributing drugs, picking up money from dealers and enforcement operations within their area of responsibility. [9] The gang's primary source of income derives from smuggling drugs across the border from Mexico to the United States. [46] The weapons used in the attack and the style the U.S. officials were killed pointed to drug traffickers as suspects; evidence provided from American intelligence and Mexican authorities then pointed to Barrio Azteca as the perpetrators. [31] They gave no official statement for the motives behind the killing, but the massacre bore all the signs of the drug violence that Ciudad Jurez was living for the past three years. Eduardo "Richolm" Ravelo (born October 13, 1968) is a Mexican American gangster who was a leader of the Barrio Azteca gang. However, DPS downgraded the threat posed by the Barrio Azteca gang in 2015 after considering it among the state's most violent Texas-based gangs since 2010. Galindo, Gonzales and Garcia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit racketeering (RICO) on Jan. 26, 2012, Jan. 18, 2012, and Jan. 29, 2012, respectively. Galindo, Gonzales and Garcia pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit (RICO) on Jan. 26, 2012, Jan. 18, 2012, and Jan. 29, 2012, respectively. [3] The gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. He also participated in the BA's activities by distributing narcotics, including heroin and cocaine, and collected extortion funds that were . [12] The Barrio Azteca has long sold drugs moved by the Jurez Cartel. 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[65] They had a membership of 2,000 strong in Ciudad Jurez alone that year. Barrio Aztecaknown as BAis an extremely violent gang, with as many as 3,500 members on the street and in jail, both in El Paso and across the Rio Grande in Juarez, Mexico. The Jurez Cartel's armed wing, "La Linea," recruited members from Barrio Azteca to fight the Sinaloa Cartel in 2008, and many gang members were killed or arrested. The case was investigated by the FBIs El Paso Field Office, Albuquerque Field (Las Cruces Resident Agency), DEA Juarez and DEA El Paso. The group already controls local drug distribution, smuggles drugs across the border, and has members in Texas, providing it with essential connections to expand operations. [21], The Mexican authorities were able to militarize the area with more than 200 federal police officers, 50 soldiers, two helicopters, a plane, and an unknown number of state and municipal police forces. The purpose of the BA-La Linea alliance was to battle the Chapo Guzman Cartel and its allies for control of the drug trafficking routes through Juarez and Chihuahua. Get fresh updates on organized crime from across the region delivered to your inbox. Rangel. In that role, Galindo maintained communication with other BA Captains and Lieutenants in the United States and Mexico and was specifically in charge of BA operations in Texas. Eduardo "Tablas" Ravelo had been wanted for . However, the successful prosecutions of Galindo, Gonzales and Garcia, and the conviction of other Barrio Azteca members reinforce another reality: that wherever these dangerous organizations operate, DEA and its partners will aggressively follow, investigate and prosecute., As members of the Barrio Azteca gang, Hector Galindo, Ricardo Gonzales and Adam Garcia participated in a brutal criminal enterprise dedicated to spreading fear and violence on both sides of the border, said Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer. Witnesses specifically implicated Galindo, then incarcerated in the Coffield Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, as the central leader within the organization who kept track of membership records, hit lists and gang treaties for the BA. According to evidence presented in court, witnesses testified to the brutality of the BA. Tango Blast, Aryan Brotherhood and Aryan Circle are the most active prison gangs in the region. WASHINGTON - A leader and two soldiers in the Barrio Azteca (BA), a transnational border gang allied with the Juarez Cartel, were sentenced in El Paso, Texas, to life, 30 and 20 years in prison, respectively, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Justice Department's Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Robert Pitman for the Of the 35 defendants charged, 33 have been apprehended, including April Cardoza, who was found in Juarez, Mexico, last week. The Barrio Azteca came out of Texas prisons but has since formalized its structure to become a drug trafficking cartel. The group has control over other local gangs, has members across the border, and already moves drug shipments across the border. > With a broad range of experience across engagement, performance management, HR systems, culture, learning and development . [52] The speculation of this hypothesis was bolstered by the fact that the second victim was also in a white SUV, but U.S. authorities do not discard the possibility that the gunmen were searching for someone else in the second attack and coincidentally happened to be a white vehicle too, killing the consulate workers by mistake. [16] In the year 2005, an informant and former lieutenant of the gang testified that Ravelo was looking for a man who had stolen goods from the Jurez cartel. A total of 35 BA members and associates based in the United States and Mexico were charged in the third superseding indictment for allegedly committing various criminal acts, including racketeering, narcotics distribution and importation, retaliation against persons providing information to U.S. law enforcement, extortion, money laundering, obstruction of justice and murder, including the 2010 Juarez consulate murders. Testimony also indicated that the BA is well-organized and militaristic in structure. Upon graduating from Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin in 2014, Joshua joined the Express-News in 2014 as a breaking news reporter. Official websites use .govA .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. The attacks brought down a great deal of pressure from the US government, which issued a federal indictment of 35 Barrio Azteca members in Texas in March 2011 on counts of extortion, murder, drug trafficking and money laundering. Tri-City Bombers, Latin Kings and Surenos are more active on a street gang level. Gustavo "Tavo" Gallardo, formerly a leader of the Barrio Aztecas in El Paso, testified in court that long before the drug cartel wars began in 2008 in Juarez, the Carrillo Fuentes drug cartel wanted to kill off the Aztecas because they were suspected of stealing millions of dollars from the cartel. Furthermore, if the cartel needed to intimidate or carry out an assassination in the United States, they would simply call on the Barrio Azteca. [23] The violence continued elsewhere throughout the prison until around 2 a.m. the next day. "[36] The federal government of Mexico responded to the massacre by implementing the "Todos Somos Jurez" program, which aimed to improve education and social development, create jobs, and improve the health benefits in Ciudad Jurez. The remaining U.S.-based defendant, Ramon Renteria, aka Spooky, took his own life while in prison during his trial. Some of these trainings took place further south of the border, in Torreon, Coahuila, indicating the group has expanded its reach into Mexico and is building its connections. According to the February 2014 testimony of one jailed Azteca member serving as a witness in the trial of former leader Arturo Gallegos, members of the gang have received training from the Zetas in assassination, extortion and security. Main tasks to coordinate the process of employees accommodation and logistics. [28] Then they stormed the party and opened fire at the victims as they were watching a soccer game. The gang operates with a hierarchical structure similar to that of the army. Initially formed in El Paso jails in 1986, the Barrio Azteca gang expanded to a transnational criminal organization, allying itself with the Juarez Cartel (pictured). [3] The gang was formed in the jails of El Paso in 1986 and expanded into a transnational criminal organization. Of the 35 indicted, 33 had been arrested and 26 had been convicted as of March 2015. "[26] Their reports state that the inmates had broken the rules of the jail and held large parties, possibly with the guards' permission. All 20 of the dead were members of Los Mexicles and Artistas Asesinos, indicating that the prison fight was instigated by members of the Barrio Azteca group. [43][44][45], Initial reports stated that unknown gunmen of a drug trafficking organization shot and killed a pregnant U.S. consulate woman and her husband at broad daylight in Ciudad Jurez on 13 March 2010, leaving a baby wailing in the back seat of the car. [24], Initial reports had stated that the massacre had started as a clash between prison gangs,[25] but the surveillance video shows "cold-blood executions," and that the members of the Barrio Azteca gang carried out the shootout without any provocation from their enemies. Twenty-one of 22 U.S.-based defendants have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced, including another BA Lieutenant Roberto Angel Cardona, who was also sentenced to life by Judge Cardone on Feb. 17, 2012.
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