I was in the dayroom. Conditions were no different on December 17, 1986, which was why Sandoval was given the assignment of B-wing hall boss that afternoon. While gang activity is widespread, only about 15 percent have more than 11 members. Popular on college campuses, most fraternities or sororities still have rites of initiation, but the focus is now being put on making the experience fun and mildly embarrassing, rather than something that causes a new member to need therapy. When they got there they found Joe Arredondo lying on his back. You were in the hallway, Smithey said. Violent retribution is an important activity of the enterprise. The so-called "hybrid members" allow the gangs to grow their empires with increased influence both in prisons and on the streets. Youre telling us its a coincidence that you werent down at the end of the hallway? To get drugs out of the free world and into prison cells, there must be a courier. Garcia would later say that he told Sandoval shortly after the Arredondo murder, Man, youre in deep shit. Jun 29, 2022. ogden clinic cardiology . Joe Arredondo was taken to a hospital in Huntsville. Sandoval described Ellis I warden Jerry Peterson as a good man but a figurehead. RELATED:Feds: Fugitive Texas elementary teacher tied to hit men, drug running and kidnapping. 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. They now have allegiances with other gangs and have a membership in the thousands throughout the southern United States. But the system will not change. He was on a westbound bus, fleeing the state. Examples of coded language indicating that someone is to be eliminated include putting an X over the name of the individual or by referring to this targeted individual as X. Additionally, TS members will state that this targeted individual has a green light, or has been designated as a muleta (problem). However, they also have plenty of killers who ruthlessly hunt down members of rival gangs. A federal grand jury indictment, returned in Austin and unsealed yesterday, charges those arrested with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. But no one suspected a thing. Lighting an inmates cigarette is considered an act of friendship or favoritism, and favoritism is forbidden by TDCJ rules. Symbols : TS, Tejanos, Texas symbols, long horns, demons, horned dragons, cuernos and syndicatos. Extra guards to supervise the gathering had to come from some other post. Defendants who are charged in this indictment include: *13 defendants were arrested yesterday. Youll drain all the blood to his head. Three other officers arrived on the scene. Sandoval insisted that he didnt know anything about the Arredondo murder other than what he filed in his report. Within the prison system, there is a widely agreed upon initiation requirement, and it is that a new recruit must kill someone. texas syndicate initiation. Federal, state and local authorities have arrested 17 members and associates of the Texas Syndicate in connection with a methamphetamine/heroin trafficking operation in central Texas announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash, FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division, Austin Police Chief Brian Manley, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw, and Gonzales . And the courier must possess a particular power: He must be able to walk through walls. There are members in North America, Western Europe, Australia, and of course, all across Asia. Apple Jack protected his mule, however, and though many knew of the officers extracurriculars, the hammer never fell on him. Anyone who gets through that is considered tough enough to be a member. Dale Schaper dutifully typed up his report, and sent it through the proper channels. If a muleta is ordered, the TS will refer to this muleta or order as having a green light.. He continued to walk, step after tortured step, a full fifty yards, before collapsing, dead, in the doorway of the infirmary. More often than not, a good time is experienced by all members, whether a veteran of the group or a newcomer, that sometimes ends up with a hangover and some funny memories. The youth gangs havent caused trouble yet, but the realities of prison life suggest that this will surely change. A certain order prevailed, which stilled the critics and deflected the interest of the media. 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. One juror phoned Sandovals brother that afternoon and told him that in her view the case against Sandoval was racially motivated. With what was left of his final J.C. Penney paycheck, Sandoval and his cousin drove to Las Vegas, a place Sandoval had always yearned to visit. [3] Syndicate members have been known to carry out contract killings for Los Zetas, the paramilitary wing of the Gulf Cartel. Today supervisors advise guards: We cannot stop a hit. The real picture presents gloomy evidence of who really is in charge at TDCJnot the state, not the guards, but the convicts themselves. Then hed say, Damn, I wish I had twenty dollars to go buy a couple of beers. And Id say, Just wait here, Ill be back. And Id collect fifty dollars for him. The most common form of initiation for a male gang member is. gangs in Texas, and they underscore the commitment among law enforcement and criminal justice agencies in Texas to share information and intelligence in order to effectively combat crime and improve public safety. First, a new prisoner or prospective member is asked a question by a member. As the free world would have it, there are good inmates and bad inmates. The gangs alleged leader Eduardo Ravela is on the FBIs Top Ten most wanted list. Given the size of the gang and the number of areas in which they operate, there are a few initiation rituals. No member is permitted to break away from the group. Whos on trial here, Louie? demanded the intense and steely-eyed chief prosecutor, Travis McDonald, during his two-hour grilling of Luis Sandoval on May 24, 1991. Prison units are individually controlled by a local chairman and vice chairman. If you last six months in there, youll make it. He did not turn himself in. The TS rules provide that the TS is to come before family. If you are switching factions, you will need to leave your company in order to change to Syndicate. 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. It is important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. Upon their release from prison, gang members returned to Texas, renamed themselves the Texas Syndicate (TS), committed crimes, and wound up in TDCJ, where they developed an extensive network of drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, and contract murder behind Texas prison walls. The Barrio Azteca gang is known to engage in a wide range of criminal activity including contract killing, murder, torture, drug trafficking and human trafficking among other offenses. In many places, it is normal to get "jumped in." 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. The Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners. The rules require that a member continue his participation in the organization upon his release from prison. And theres always somebody, the ex-drug runner told me, wholl do something for you.. 10 facts about the Barrio Azteca, one of the most dangerous gangs in Texas, Mark Lambie/AP Photo/El Paso Times, Mark Lambie. Prison officials believe that the rivalry between the TS and the Mexican Mafia has produced homicides in Austin, Dallas, Houston, El Paso, and especially San Antonio, where nearly one hundred suspected prison-gang-related murders were committed last year. This practice violated the Ruiz stipulation that an officer must be present at all times at any entrance or exit of the main building. And as in any society, some lead while others are led. The Texas Syndicate or Syndicato Tejano was the first prison gang to heavily impact the prison system in Texas. Its a society, Luis Sandoval told me of the world he inhabited five days a week, eight hours a day. Hey, boss, you got a light? Luis Sandoval pulled out his lighter and, as he had before, lit the cigarette held by Armando Garcia. If you tell him, Put that knife down, hell look up at you and say, I aint through yet. These people are serious. West Texas Syndicate Energy is an energy company with practical and futuristic goals, continuing to push environmental-friendly and pioneering technologies in more traditional energy endeavors. Today, Sandoval says he mailed the letter and others like it with a kind heart but with bad judgment. And in an institution where judgment allowed some inmates to flaunt dangerous weapons while officials looked the other way, mailing the letter seemed like a minor transgression. Though inmates werent allowed needles for tattooing, resident artists took to using the metal pieces of windup toys. Every inmate was confined to his cell, stripped of recreation and visitation privileges, and fed sandwiches that guards tossed through the bars of the cell. This coded language is often hidden in an otherwise meaningless letter or telephone call. 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. 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. On March 19, the name of Luis Sandoval was called three times in the Walker County courthouse, but the defendant did not respond. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Without drugs, gangs would have little income; without income, they would have little power over the system. Everyone wanted informationon the inmates, on their superiors, on their peers. Over time, Sandoval got sucked into the undertow of prison life. Tango Blast, Texas Syndicate, Bloods, Crips, Gangster Disciples and MS-13 all were identified as active in human smuggling operations in 2014. TS rules are strictly enforced, primarily resulting in violent attacks on and executions of TS members who violate their rules. After being released from California prisons these inmates returned to Texas, often returning to violence and re-entering the prison system. Video cameras monitor the hallways. The Junky Funky Kids, who operate in areas in and around the Cape Flats part of Cape Town, South Africa, are just one of several dangerous gangs that operate in those areas. But Ellis I officials, like so many other wardens in the post-Ruiz era, were playing a numbers game. Other chapters of the gang make this cocktail but use the blood of other members and recruits, along with wine and ashes to make it. DPS says the 2014 arrest of cartel leader Vicente Carrillo Fuentes diminished the gangs influence. Its a society all its own. I have the Experience and Reputation to Fight for Your Rights. (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. 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. Receipt of inmates on interstate compact and the current membership in groups with Hispanic and Latino supremacy ideology lend to the threat of an organizing TS within our facilities. Other members have been instructed to attack strangers or cops, and of course, many of the women who get into this gang do so by offering themselves to multiple members. Armando Garcia had seen this coming. Ellis I officials caught wind of the deal through a snitch. It is a method of psychologically breaking a kid and has been used in many war zones in recent years, including Joseph Kony in Uganda and the Sierra Leone conflict. Sandoval figured the odds were about even. 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.. Now Turner could be seen pushing trash cans down the hall, twirling his knife in the air; nobody took his knife away. Theyre gonna say you were in on it. Not one of them pinned the murder of Joe Arredondo on Sandoval. Bring a gurney! called the lieutenant. Most new members are initiated in a two-step process. Snow flakes glide gently from the sky.The Farm Hand. McCool opened the picket gate to allow Sandoval into the rest room. The motorcycle gang has roots going back to the 1960s, but only debuted on the DPS's Texas Gang Threat Assessment in 2015 after a deadly clash with the Bandidos Motorcycle Club in Waco on May 17 that left nine people dead. Apparently the inmates at Ellis I had noticed this as well, for their sweet talk had gotten to him. However if a member is not deemed worthy to be initiated, the denied appellant could end up becoming victimized by the gang, such as making the person pay money for protection and be put to work for the gang through prostitution. The thought worked away at his nerves. That statistic does not come close to reflecting the actual number of TDCJ employees suspected of involvement in corrupt activities. Hes bleeding! He whirled and burst into the B-wing hallway. Crippin knelt and lifted the inmates legs. 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. By the end of the eighties, the public fretting over prison gangs had dissipated. The assailant was nowhere in sight. One day Garcia told Sandoval to expect a call at home that evening. [1], Development of the Texas Syndicate was initially motivated by self-protection against the historical "building tenders" in prison. In 1850, the population of New York City had soared to well over one-half million residents. He took up smoking, two packs every eight-hour shift. While this may not be the only initiation used by the Texas Syndicate, it is a popular one and frankly makes the most practical sense in terms of actually advancing the gang's goals. Los Zetas, the paramilitary wing of the Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Familia! Sweet talk had gotten to him have more than 11 members were playing a numbers.! 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