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If you didnt treat your snitch right, he would scurry off to a more grateful listener and begin his new relationship by snitching on you. Dont go in there, said the veteran, who then correctly hollered Fight! Presently other guards arrived, along with a lieutenant, who ordered, Open the gate.. I knew he didnt have nothing to do with it. That first week, as he chatted with one of the old boots, the cry came from somewhere behind him: Help me, Boss! Turning around, Sandoval saw a Hispanic inmate standing behind a hallway crash-gate, clinging to the bars with both hands. But the first six months is hell. Sandoval was determined to tough it out. Prison officials could boast that their residents stood less chance of being killed than did the average Texas city dweller. Recruitment is conducted through social ties and involves a background check to screen for informants.[1]. Our prisons, far from turning out reformed citizens, have instead become incubators of a statewide crime wave. But the defendants earnest tone suggested that this was itself an injusticethat the prison system had asked the impossible of prison guards and was now punishing Sandoval for the states shortcomings. After its formation in 1986, both the Texas Syndicate and Texas Mexican Mafia refused to recognize the Aztecas and declared war on the gang. Texas Department of Public Safety . On Monday, at eight in the morning, Sandoval reported for duty at the Ellis I training academy in Huntsville. on specific gang tattoos and use hand signs. The brutality of the murder, coupled with Sandovals complete inability to prevent it, made quite an impression on the young guard. Sandoval told me that he took the money, though he denied it in court. ChatGPT gathers . 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. By the end of the eighties, the public fretting over prison gangs had dissipated. Recalling the letter deliveries and phone messages, Sandoval might have wondered just what he had gotten himself into and how deeply. Yell fight, he said, but the two officers seemed paralyzed. [6], TS has a paramilitary structure, headed by a president and vice president elected by the general membership. Mimi Swartz is a staff writer based in Houston. Barrio Azteca members also are involved in alien smuggling, arson, assault, auto theft, burglary, extortion, intimidation, kidnapping, robbery, and weapons violations. But others suspected that this hit was done on behalf of the Carrillo-Fuentes DTO (Juarez Cartel). ), The Sandoval trial was a rare public washing of the Texas penal systems bloodstained linen. (After the trial, Sandoval became less talkative on the subject of drugs. Extra guards to supervise the gathering had to come from some other post. For several days, Sandoval read the Bible and considered his options. We are seeking a detail-oriented sign installer to transport and install a variety of signs. The following day, Chaplain Alexander Taylor, who witnessed Sandovals efforts, wrote the CO III a letter of commendation. The Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners. The Department of Public Safety has released its 2018 Texas Gang Threat Assessment, and all 14 of the state's highest-threat gangs have a presence in Bexar County, the report showed. On the other hand, if his superiors caught him delivering inmate mail, they could fire him on the spot. Source: National Gang Assessment 2009. 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 . They often use the letters "BA" or numbers "21" as their identifying symbols and tattoos. West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country, H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping. Theyre coming in from work, theyre coming out of the tanks to go eat or recreate or go to school or go to the chapel, said Sandoval. Some veteran gang members claim that the Barrio Azteca gang can trace its roots in El Paso back to the original 1940s El Paso Tip gang (ept). Rosas would do the killing, while another TS member held Arredondo and two others stood by as lookouts. The decision was reached: Arredondo would be taken down. (Today, Sandoval says that statement was coerced.) Federal agents arrested 28 people and subsequently charging 35 Barrio Azteca members and associates with racketeering and related charges in a sweep called Operation Knock Down on March 20, 2010. Perhaps it was because Vicente was so quiet and servile or perhaps he had such a talent for lingering that the porters simply paid him no mind. Every time law enforcement thought that they had knocked out or retired the Eme organization, they found that the Eme came back again. Due to the fact that most recruiting happens in prison, law enforcement agencies always struggled with estimating the effective number of people belonging to the gang. Looking toward the chapel, he could see Crippin ahead of him, heading for the hidden narrow corridor at the west end of the B-wing. As the organization continued growing, drug trafficking came to be one of their favorite activities and sources of income. These include 13, Black Hand of Death, The M, and La Eme, which is Spanish for "the M". He was arrested for driving while intoxicated, following a one-car accident that left his limbs temporarily paralyzed. Employees come and go unfrisked, unobserved. Although once used mostly at Heavy Metal and Rock 'N' Roll concerts, the Satan sign is now seen regularly at Country Music concerts and Christian Rock concerts as well. More accurate investigations lower the number to about 4000, with some sources even going as low as 3800. Leslie Zepeda died the day after Christmas. Facebook . Instead, he wrote an impassioned, handwritten 24-page letter that his mother sent to a few members of the media. One day Sandoval received a phone call at work. Sandoval marveled at the river of red the inmate had left behind. Understand that the Texas Syndicate is always in the right; 5. It took months before someone looked closely at the gas mask featured on the patch and realized that every correctional officer at the unit had been wearing the letters TS across his forehead. On Sandovals shift alone, at least four or five guards had been busted for bringing drugs into prison, but there were others who hadnt been busted and probably never would be. 15 Title TEXAS SYNDICATE (ESE TE: TS) History The TS originated in the California prison system in the early 1970s, primarily to protect the small number of native Texan Mexican-American inmates from Gangs still terrorize the prisons. Nearly all of them, however, confessed that they knew TDCJ had its share of dirty guards. 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. At certain times, more than five hundred of them might flood the B-wing hallway en route to the gym, the chapel, the woodshop, or the chow hall. One Ellis I officer reported that in 1986, between one hundred and two hundred gallons of chock was discovered on a weekly basis within the unit. To the newer guards, Sandovals stature among the inmates was something to behold. Texas Chicano Brotherhood 11. Or if they cared to enforce the rule. There are only weak inmates and strong inmates. Don't quit your day job, ChatGPT! Well, so does the inmate. He lit cigarettes, which led to other small favors, which led to bigger ones. The violent wars between these and other power groups within the custody facilities made these two prison gangs the big bullies on the block. The impulse is to accommodate the inmate, since prisonsspiritual wastelands of concrete and metalcry out for random acts of human kindness. It was a blind spot, and unit officials hoped the inmates wouldnt notice. (Officials also say the Texas Syndicate is far more selective and does not, for example, recruit homosexuals.) Just like in the free world. The Barrio Azteca was formedfrom these alienated inmates. Twelve days later, Texas chief prison prosecutor Travis McDonald flew to L.A., took custody of Sandoval, and flew him back to Huntsville, where he was held without bond at the Walker County jail. A week later another juror wrote Sandoval a four-page letter, expressing her chagrin that he had been put through all the agony. He just got involved with the wrong people.. Unlike most state crises, there is absolutely no mystery to the takeover of our prisons by violent gangs. Sandoval, in the meantime, worked at J.C. Penney in Plano. And call for a gurney.. As the free world would have it, there are good inmates and bad inmates. The Texas Syndicate's activities include drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, protection, gambling, and contract murder. Its a society, Luis Sandoval told me of the world he inhabited five days a week, eight hours a day. Gang members have a direct working relationship with associates and/or members of the Gulf Cartel. In addition to Shamoo Rodriguez and Porky Amaro, 11 others have already pled guilty. SMU's Pony Ears is just one of many Texas college football hand signs. His mother and stepfather lived in a middle-class neighborhood, but most of Sandovals friends lived in the barrios or in the projects of Kingsville, where Sandoval attended college for three years. And all you see is white shirts. If you work at any time for the TDCJ, said assistant prosecutor Burt Neal Tuck Tucker during the first day of testimony, you know how powerful the Texas Syndicate can be.. And as you work there, you tend to become a product of your environment. The murder would take place in a corridor abutting the B-wing: the maximum-security area where Luis Sandoval often worked. The ugly crimes of kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion, gang violence, and unsolved murders are often committed by Mexican cartel members in cities across the United States but remain unreported. This booklet contains historical synopses of all STGs recognized by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), as well as recognized tattoos and other related indicators most often used by STGs and various street gang members. The single eye, or the eye of Providence originates in Egypt with the eye of Horus. Then he returned to Arredondo. There were many times when he said, I aint gonna do this shit anymore. And wed think, well, maybe were putting too much pressure on him. Garcia, a four-time loser serving a life sentence for repeated theft and heroin offenses, was one of the friendlier inmates: 33 years old but actually grandfatherly in demeanora gentleman, you could almost sayquiet and unthreatening. Still, gang members will frequently get tattoos to show their allegiance to their clique. After you sit there for twenty-four hours a day with nothing else to do, you discover all sorts of good hiding places. Added a current officer, The only time that we can find drugs is if an inmate snitches and tells us.. At the close of the eighth hour, the shift changes, but the inmates remain. On March 19, the name of Luis Sandoval was called three times in the Walker County courthouse, but the defendant did not respond. (For that matter, Garcia testified during the trial, outside the presence of the jury, that Sandoval muled drugs countless times.) Sandoval was never searched, he told me, and came to learn that the only way they bust you is if theyre told by a snitch, This guys coming in today., While Sandoval said there were other guardsand even supervisorsinvolved in drug activity, the Texas Syndicate preferred that Garcia deal directly with Sandoval, a fellow Hispanic. They grew quickly by recruiting violent individuals, especially from the El Paso-Juarez area. Sandoval is one of more than sixty TDCJ guards who have been indicted by McDonalds Special Prison Prosecution Unit over the past six years for felony offenses. Show More Show Less 20 of 32 7. Until Judge Justices decree, TDCJs inmate population was essentially governed by brutal trusties known as building tenders, whose methodswhich included beating and sodomizing inmates into terrified submissionwent largely unchecked by prison officials. The sign represents the evil eye floating above the pyramid. The warden would later testify that Sandovals actions were somewhat heroic. But, Peterson added, the hero had seemed awfully calm in the midst of all the bloodshedperhaps too calm. [1], The history of the group and documented acts of violence in other jurisdictions warrant their certification as a Security Threat Group.