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Sandoval was then ordered to take off his uniform and replace it with inmate furlough clothes. But I was a good officer. Thus, the former good officer now wished to disavow everything he had told me earlier. Leslie Zepeda died the day after Christmas. A Guard in Gangland - Texas Monthly We spoke to hundreds of prison gang members - here's what they said He had a one-week prison furlough coming up; the gang didnt want to spook him, fearing that he might not return to Ellis I. But he stayed out of trouble, in large part because of two hall porters, Bubba Ray Smith and Johnny Abrams. More accurate investigations lower the number to about 4000, with some sources even going as low as 3800. Texas Chicano Brotherhood 11. While the number of effective affiliates within the federal prison system continued to grow, the Texas Syndicate began expanding their operations to the outside world. The letter was not what one might expect from a former prison guard. A Texas man sentenced to 25 years for aggravated assault of a family member was erroneously . McCool opened the picket gate to allow Sandoval into the rest room. A deal was struck between the gang and Garcia: Garcia would acquire the drugs, give half to the Texas Syndicate, and sell the other half himself. General Info The Texas Syndicate was downgraded in threat level to Tier 2, after years on the Tier 1 list, following law enforcement investigations that severely disrupted the gang, the DPS says. And the rise of gang activity as evidenced by the rash of shootings we've seen in major metropolitan areas like Chicago and elsewhere is increasingly threatening the very safety and security of both law enforcement officers and the communities we serve, nationwide. Sandoval took the advice three years after Garcia gave it. PDF , 'I But the sudden absence of gang wars did not mean that the gangs had gone away. I knew he didnt have nothing to do with it. But they werent enough: A guard like Luis Sandoval would be assigned to a hallway filled with hundreds of inmates. LUBBOCK, Texas - Cruz Perez, a/k/a "Travieso," 41, was sentenced today by Senior U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 327 months in federal prison for his role in a methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana distribution conspiracy, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.. Perez, a member of the Texas Syndicate pled guilty in February 2017 to one count of . At that time, the Texas jail and prison systems were under the control of the Texas Mexican Mafia, or Mexikanemi, and the older Texas Syndicate (TS) prison gangs. Everyone wanted informationon the inmates, on their superiors, on their peers. 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. A host of documents relating to the trial, as well as interviews with numerous sources involved in the case, have provided chilling details of how Texas prisons really work today. They grew quickly by recruiting violent individuals, especially from the El Paso-Juarez area. Forrest Wilder writes about politics and the outdoors. Crippin knelt and lifted the inmates legs. Theyre gonna be looking at you, and all that stuff in the past is gonna come up. Texas syndicate one of the worst gangs in the Rio Grande Valley 13 is traditionally known in the West as an unlucky number, but it is also part of several other gang names . I didnt do it, Sandoval announced to me in a recent phone conversation. Prison Gangs - Texas Gang Investigators Association - tgia.net Overall auto volume was 126,237 . Sandoval felt more at home with fellow Hispanics than with the black inmates, who terrified him. Hey, Boss, you got a light? Every newly hired prison guard, or new boot, hears the question. Texas Department of Public Safety. Employees come and go unfrisked, unobserved. But the system will not change. Later, when Vicente asked the guard to phone a number in Brady and ask the person who answered when Vicentes family would make their next visit, Sandoval had no objections. He was whisked off to the Walker County jail. USPS Orders 9,250 Ford E-Transit Vans & 14,000 EV Charging Stations But the evidence gathered by Justice clearly added up to a violation of the Eight Amendments protection from cruel and unusual punishment. In conspiracy theory lore, it represents allegiance to Satan and the Illuminati. The first Texas prison guard ever to be tried for the murder of an inmate seemed eager to describe, to me and to the jurors, the pressures and temptations a correctional officer faces. Were he to pay his old workplace a visit, Luis Sandoval would notice several changes at Ellis I. It took the jury 33 minutes to decide that Sandoval was not guilty. While in prison, members ensure the safety of both allies and other affiliates. Katy Vine has been a staff writer since 2002. Prisons, crammed with thrill-seekers and outright junkies, provide the ultimate captive consumers. Sandoval insisted that he didnt know anything about the Arredondo murder other than what he filed in his report. Rank is taking care of them.. Tango Blast. You better get the hell out of here, Sandoval.. texas syndicate hand signsjack paar cause of death. Im on trial, sir, conceded the polite young man in the pin-striped suit who sat in the witness stand. Two years after lighting his first cigarette, Sandoval was arrested and charged with murder for allegedly aiding a gang plot to kill an inmate. He continued to walk, step after tortured step, a full fifty yards, before collapsing, dead, in the doorway of the infirmary. Current Location: Most of Texas, Other Zones in The United States; His father died. John Loomis. The Texas Syndicate (or Syndicato Tejano) is a mostly Texas-based prison gang that includes Hispanic and at one time White members (The organization at one time did allow non-Hispanic members to join, but that policy was repealed in the 1980s). Compared with Luis Sandovals quiet life in Alice, Ellis I must have seemed like an opium den. Or if they cared to enforce the rule. They didnt believe Sandoval. The inmates handed Sandoval a letter, wondering if the guard could mail it for them. Four Uvalde Texas Syndicate Members Sentenced to Life in Federal Prison The first major TDCJ gang, a Hispanic group known as the Texans, consisted of former residents who were doing time in California penal institutions in the mid-seventies. Meanwhile, white inmates, tired of being robbed and sexually assaulted by the larger population of black inmates, began the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Prison officials could boast that their residents stood less chance of being killed than did the average Texas city dweller. He was accused of leaving a door unsecured and unguarded as part of a murder plot. The 2000s and Today Some offenders join an STG in an effort to exert influence and take advantage of other offenders. He was arrested for driving while intoxicated, following a one-car accident that left his limbs temporarily paralyzed. The single eye, or the eye of Providence originates in Egypt with the eye of Horus. This would put the Texas Syndicate in contact with several Mexican-based cartels. Either way, Sandoval was out. If they dont make this hit, theyll become the person to get hit. PDF UNCLASSIFIED Texas - Texas Department of Public Safety Several weeks after the jurys verdict, he told me over the phone that he wished to recant everything he had said to me on tape about his involvement with drugs. The two inmate snitches who testified against Sandoval understated their criminal history, contradicted each other, and came off looking like dirtbags who would say anything for the right price. Are you on trial or is TDC on trial?. As a result, the Mexikanemi and the Texas Syndicate begrudgingly recognized Barrio Azteca. 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 . Sandoval got up, ran into the hallway, and yelled fight twice. He would stand at the searchers desk like he was running the building, Sandoval said. Prisoners join gangs, thereby becoming strong, and prey upon the weak. To pay for his legal expenses, his mother sold the family home. Today, the Texas Syndicate is both a prison and a street gang. These would mostly come to life within the prison system; both as a physical response to assaults and as a way to achieve greater racial unity. Some choose designs that symbolize their time inside. Some speculated that the car was shot up in retaliation against the male husbands of the employees, because one of them worked in a custody facility in El Paso where the Azteca gang members were incarcerated. If you tell him, Put that knife down, hell look up at you and say, I aint through yet. These people are serious. The Texas Syndicate (Spanish: Sindicato Tejano) is a mostly Texas -based street and prison gang consisting of predominantly Mexican American membership. Eventually, Sandoval agreed to bring drugs into Ellis I. Convicts made primitive ovens out of foil-lined cardboard boxes equipped with a light bulb, and cooked deer or rabbit killed by inmates working in the fields. Post author: Post published: June 10, 2022; Post category: do coyotes eat crows; Post comments: . A court granted the ACLU of Illinois and Black Lives Matter Chicago permission to intervene in the consent decree negotiations. Its a society, Luis Sandoval told me of the world he inhabited five days a week, eight hours a day. "A Real Shot" Texas AG Sues To Stop $1.7 Trillion Bill Implementation On Constitutional "Quorum" Grounds; VIDEO: Ukrainian Troops On the battlefield Giving NAZI Salute; REVEALED: Nikki Haley Is One of Globalist World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab's 'Young Global Leaders' Understand that the Texas Syndicate is always in the right; 5. To make identification difficult for prison officials, most gang members no longer wear tattoos. He just got involved with the wrong people.. Sandoval, in the meantime, worked at J.C. Penney in Plano. Rivals: Mexican Mafia, Tengo Blast, Nuestra Familia. Facebook The corridor where Joe Arredondo was murdered is now permanently guarded. To keep him at ease, the Texas Syndicate requested that the inmate return from his furlough with two hundred dollars worth of heroin and marijuana. When Arredondo got killed, Sandoval was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Blood was gushing out of a hole in his neck; he was unconscious but gasping wildly. This international criminal organization, which began as an El Paso street gang, has organized and proliferated on both sides of the Mexican border to become one of the most dangerous prison gangs operating in both state and federal facilities. The west end of the B-wing hallway was left unguarded after three-thirty every afternoon, when the guard normally stationed there was transferred to the chow hall. Law Enforcement Guide to Texas Street Gangs | Public Intelligence But as the weeks rolled on, as the dos and donts of the training manual began to look more and more like some bureaucrats idea of a joke, his resolve cratered. Gangs didnt worry about guards; they worried about each other. The attorney was advised that his client would never again wear gray in a state penal institution. They reinvest these funds to fuel the gang's supply of drugs, guns and ammunition. Yes, he had mailed Vicentes letters, had cashed two money orders for the inmate, and on three different occasions, had delivered packages from a parking lot to a telephone booth. Texas Syndicate We know who you take orders from. The system snitches on one mule while protecting another. These include 13, Black Hand of Death, The M, and La Eme, which is Spanish for "the M". Feds Indict 14 Texas Syndicate Members For Murder - Dallas Observer On the witness stand, Sandoval suggested that the caller was someone from TDCJ Internal Affairs; more likely, he was a Texas Syndicate member delivering the message that the TS would not be amused if Sandoval blew the whistle on their activities. And call for a gurney.. Porky Viscaino-Amaro, 41, is a Mexican citizen. On March 19, the name of Luis Sandoval was called three times in the Walker County courthouse, but the defendant did not respond. If you last six months in there, youll make it. Then he headed for the bathroom, a route that took him through a confined area guarded by CO II Nolan McCool. Go to the shop Go to the shop. But Ellis I officials, like so many other wardens in the post-Ruiz era, were playing a numbers game. (After the trial, Sandoval became less talkative on the subject of drugs. texas syndicate hand signs 1%; 1% ER; Bandidos MC; Bandidos MG, BFFB = Bandidos Forever Forever Bandidos; GFBD = God Forgives Bandidos Don't; BFFBGFBD, Houstone Houston, Texas, Broken Star Emblem, HTB, 713 , 281, PTB, "16" "20" "2",D-Town, 214, Dallas, Texas, Solid Star with Outline, Fort Worth, Texas, Hollow Star with Outline, Foros or Foritos, Funky Town, 817, Austin, Texas, ATX Blast, ATX Tango Blast, La Capirucha, Capitol Building, 3 D Star with ATX, San Antonio, Texas, San Antonio Spurs logo, 210, San Anto, Orejones, Valluco, Valle, Puro Valluco, 956, 100% Valluco, XXII, Palms trees shaped in "V" , West , West Tango, 806, "W" "T", Current Anti-Gang Efforts and Initiatives >>, Most WantedGang FugitivesU.S. Look, man, I think Im being watched, Sandoval told Garcia the next day. To get drugs out of the free world and into prison cells, there must be a courier. They have their prostitution, their gambling, their extortion. Some rules were just too silly to heed. I could watch him deal with inmates and think, This guy knows something I dont know., One evening, while gazing out from his apartment balcony, Sandoval saw a car drive slowly by. You were in the hallway, Smithey said. Inmates fashioned shanks out of road signs, door hinges, food trays, typewriter platen rods, and field equipment. texas syndicate hand signs - s208669.gridserver.com Texas Syndicate Tattoos: resno Neon is a 90 year old electric sign company based in the Central San Joaquin Valley, California. Arredondo was a Texas Syndicate member. Rumor had it that inmate Jesse Turner had stood between an inmate and a prison official and had taken the blade himself. 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. Armando Garcia had seen this coming. It seemed that everywhere Sandoval went, there was Vicente, pushing his broom across the floor, sometimes waving or offering a greeting to the new boot, but never badgering him. So wed just lay back, let him cool down. Gainesville, FL, Disbands K-9 Unit Over Arrestee Losing Eye, IL Deputy Dies After Medical Event During Training, New TASER 10 Will Require Training for Seasoned Officers, Brinc Announces Next Generation of Lemur Drone, 11 Inspirational Quotes to Boost Police Morale in Trying Times, Half of Survey's Very Liberal Respondents Believe 1,000 or More Unarmed Black Men Killed by Police in 2019. Texas Syndicate gang members arrested after meth, heroin bust - KSAT 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.. 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. Now selling hats and. on specific gang tattoos and use hand signs. 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. One day Sandoval received a phone call at work. In return, the snitch had an oversized cell to himself, plus a hall pass that gave him the run of the unit. 2018) The Fifth Circuit affirmed defendants' convictions and sentences arising from their participation in racketeering activities that centrally involve violence, murder, and the distribution of drugs for the Texas Syndicate gang in Uvalde, Texas. All Garcia and his friend Vicente lacked was a reliable drug mule who could be counted on to transport drugs into the prison. France's Plugin EVs Hit 24% In February, Dacia Spring Still Boss [2], Texas Syndicate members abide by a constitution requiring members to:[1], Additionally, gang leadership is determined by democratic elections, requiring a unanimous decision. Either the guard didnt know what was going on, or he did. Neither possibility seemed likely, given what Sandoval had learned about TDCJ in his first few months on the job. Members of La eMe and exponents of white supremacy theories such as the Aryan Brotherhood would often prey on these individuals, who found themselves lacking the numbers and allies to put up a fight. Sandoval knew this. The short, apple-cheeked Hispanic man with the neatly combed hair and the Howdy Doody grin looked too soft to be an inmate or even a guard. Fire Ants Have Unleashed Chaos in Texas for Decades. In a press release, USPS says it has awarded contracts to Ford to purchase 9,250 left-hand-drive regular production E-Transit electric vans as well as 14,000 EV charging stations to support their . Daniel Vaughn is the countrys first barbecue editor, and he has eaten more barbecue than you have. Released or parole members who generate money for the Texas Syndicate must surrender a 10% tax ("the dime") of all proceeds toward the gang in prison. Texas Mafia 12. Sandoval told me that he took the money, though he denied it in court. 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. Sandoval came to enjoy these moments. 15 Facts You Didn't Know About La eMe, The Mexican Mafia - TheRichest I was a damn good officer, he told both me and them. The real picture presents gloomy evidence of who really is in charge at TDCJnot the state, not the guards, but the convicts themselves. I was in the dayroom. But the first six months is hell. Sandoval was determined to tough it out. SMU is among the Texas colleges that have unique ways of showing pride -- with their hands. It took more than three years for the Arredondo murder case to come to trial, during which time a number of things happened to Sandoval. Exaggerated? What sustains the gangs is money, which inmates use to bribe prison employees. But such sentiments are meaningless down on the farm. Hey, boss, you got a light? Luis Sandoval pulled out his lighter and, as he had before, lit the cigarette held by Armando Garcia. 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. Beneath them in the gang hierarchy are captains, lieutenants, sergeants of arms, and numerous soldiers. Both in cities and behind bars, members of the Texas Syndicate began using hand-signs and gang markings to show their allegiance to the group. Texas Mexican Mafia comes in a distant second with 4,700 members, followed by the Texas Syndicate (3,400 members), Latin Kings (2,100 members) and MS-13 (800 members). Sandoval picked up the marijuana and smuggled it into Ellis Ifrightened every step of the way, he told me, that someone might notice the smell of marijuana and search him. But Arredondo had brought back nothing. Leader Of "Texas Syndicate" Drug Trafficking Organization Sentenced To Is Mexican Cartel Activity In the U.S. [3] Syndicate members have been known to carry out contract killings for Los Zetas, the paramilitary wing of the Gulf Cartel. Most convicts who finish serving their sentence leave the gang life behind, with only a fraction continuing as street thugs. When asked on the witness stand if the hallway was ever undermanned, the reply of Nolan McCoolanother officer working the B-wing that afternoonwas emphatic: Constantly.. By current estimates, more than 2,000 members make up their ranks. Eventually, however, Vicente and Garcia began to ask for more than a light. The Texas Syndicate, a prison gang that operates in and outside of penitentiaries, is considered by state law-enforcement officials to be among the most dangerous criminal organizations in. When they got there they found Joe Arredondo lying on his back. Any gang member who's spent any time in custody has practiced slipping out of handcuffs and shackles, and you can bet one or more of them carry jail-made handcuff keys. Sandoval marveled at the river of red the inmate had left behind. After that first transaction, Sandoval went back for morea total of three, four, or five times, he told me, though he vividly described six transactions to an investigator hired by his family. texas syndicate hand signs - creditsolutionexperts.com Then he returned to Arredondo. The inmate, a former gang operative now in protective custody, pulled a hand-rolled cigarette out of his white shirt and lit it. Diseo y fabricacin de reactores y equipo cientfico y de laboratorio His assignment was one of the toughest jobs in Ellis I. Yet a former prison drug-runner confirmed the obviousthat without the help of TDCJ employees, the flow of drugs into state prisons would dry up. The release in Mexico of one of the men responsible for the murder of DEA Special Agent Enrique "Kiki" Camarena has renewed tension between the U.S. and Mexico over the case. 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. In the tenements across the street from the Texas A&I University stadium lived a fifteen-year-old girl named Veronica, whom he married on June 22, 1985, after learning that TDCJ had accepted his application for employment as a correctional officer, or CO. In addition to Shamoo Rodriguez and Porky Amaro, 11 others have already pled guilty. Bring on the Shiplap. 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. After the big lockdown, metal detectors were installed in every prison unit to discourage the carrying of shanks. Seemingly everyone in Ellis I would snitch or be snitched on. Sandoval did as he was asked. By the spring of 1986, prison officials had examined every inmate for telltale tattoos, weeded out identifiable gang members, and ordered that they spend the rest of their sentences in administrative segregation, away from the general population.