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So it may be a week or a month or a yearbut that hit is on.. Gang members have a direct working relationship with associates and/or members of the Gulf Cartel. Thereafter, inmates made their blades out of hard plastic or made do with whatever crude instrument was within reach, like the cast-iron weight an inmate found in the recreation yard and used, with one vicious swing, to lop off the ear of another inmate. Its a society all its own. Just as he entered, Sandoval heard someone yell, Hes on the floor! One was an officer who muled marijuana and cocaine for a black inmate known as Apple Jack, whose activities were no secret at the unit. DPS releases list of gangs in Texas posing the greatest threat Texas Syndicate Leslie Zepeda died the day after Christmas. Not one of them said that Sandoval was a bad officer; many, in fact, went out of their way to laud his abilities. Unfortunately, your shopping bag is empty. school of professional studies acceptance rate duplexes for rent in lebanon, mo duplexes for rent in lebanon, mo Other weapons were by-products of inmate ingenuity, as in the case of Cosmo, the death row inmate who fashioned a bomb out of matchstick tips and an asthma inhaler and blew a hole in his cell wall. Joe Arredondo was taken to a hospital in Huntsville. 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. When Sandoval told me that, he was sitting in the interrogation room of the Walker County jail in Huntsville, wearing prison whites. SMU's Pony Ears is just one of many Texas college football hand signs. That afternoon in the interrogation room, Special Prison Prosecution Unit investigator Royce Smithey bore down on Sandoval. Some of these funds are used to bribe police and public officials on both sides of the border. But the system will not change. 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. 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.. 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. After its formation in 1986, both the Texas Syndicate and Texas Mexican Mafia refused to recognize the Aztecas and declared war on the gang. Hey, Boss, you got a light? Every newly hired prison guard, or new boot, hears the question. [1], The history of the group and documented acts of violence in other jurisdictions warrant their certification as a Security Threat Group. 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. [2] The Syndicate is the oldest Texan prison gang. The money chiefly comes from drugs. The Texas Syndicate or Syndicato Tejano was the first prison gang to heavily impact the prison system in Texas. The guard made the call, apparently unaware that such messages, and the letters, might contain coded instructions from a prison drug-runner to a high-ranking member of the Texas Syndicate. On the unit level, the Texas Syndicate is controlled by a chairman who over sees the vice chairman, captain, lieutenant, ser geant of arms, and soldiers. They have their prostitution, their gambling, their extortion. But that was if they caught him. Sandoval took the advice three years after Garcia gave it. Intelligence & Counterterrorism Division . The Horned Hand or "Cornuto" represents the Devil, Satan, The Goat. . Feds Indict 14 Texas Syndicate Members For Murder - Dallas Observer He was accused of leaving a door unsecured and unguarded as part of a murder plot. The officials fitted Sandoval with handcuffs, leg irons, and a belly chain. Barrio Azteca is currently at the top of the FBI and DEA threat list. 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. One day Garcia told Sandoval to expect a call at home that evening. Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. With the impersonal manner of assassins who have long since become intimate with the odor of death, the witnessesguards, inmates, and prison officialsreadily supplied evidence that gangs are calling the shots in our prisons. The impulse is to accommodate the inmate, since prisonsspiritual wastelands of concrete and metalcry out for random acts of human kindness. Eventually, Sandoval agreed to bring drugs into Ellis I. The 1,577 gang members currently housed in administrative segregation represent only a fraction of those inmates who actually do the gangs bidding. A question for the mayor: If it really is unacceptable, why do you continue to accept it? A long, metal objecta homemade knife, or shankprotruded from his jugular. Everybody knew about this scum. Yet Apple Jack went unpunished: He tithed a share of his profits to the Texas Syndicate and gave the supervisors something to crow about by setting up a guard now and then. [2], Texas Syndicate members abide by a constitution requiring members to:[1], Additionally, gang leadership is determined by democratic elections, requiring a unanimous decision. 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. The man accused of getting into a police shoot out was a Texas syndicate gang member. If he refused to do the favor, they could always snitch on him for lighting an inmates cigarettethough Sandoval didnt think either was that type of inmate. We are seeking a detail-oriented sign installer to transport and install a variety of signs. Sandoval felt more at home with fellow Hispanics than with the black inmates, who terrified him. But things got more interesting when Internal Affairs investigator Dale Schaper walked into the room and handed Sandoval copies of his phone records, showing that 25 phone calls he had made on Vicentes behalf were to a high-ranking TS official named Felix Benavidez. school of professional studies acceptance rate duplexes for rent in lebanon, mo duplexes for rent in lebanon, mo Bring on the Shiplap. Later, Vicente asked the guard if a free world individual could mail Sandoval two money orders, which Sandoval would cash and then bring the $250 to the inmates. Either the guard didnt know what was going on, or he did. 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. By the end of the eighties, the public fretting over prison gangs had dissipated. Paranoia overcame him. But other factors have caused guards to agree to be drug mules. The latter policy would be reversed in the 1980s. This time, however, four Internal Affairs officers greeted him inside by reading him his rights and charging him with murder. The number 13 and the letter M both play a big role in Mexican Mafia aliases and symbolism, some of which we have seen so far throughout this list. A Texas man sentenced to 25 years for aggravated assault of a family member was erroneously . Sandoval, in the meantime, worked at J.C. Penney in Plano. 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). Theres no way to shut them down, Sandoval said. Kelly Manfredini - Austin, Texas, United States - LinkedIn [1] The Texas Syndicate has approximately 1,300 members, the majority of whom are Mexican American males aged between 20 and 40. At Ellis I, Sandoval had never seen so many rules enforced so haphazardly. He called his mother, who begged him to turn himself in. While in prison, members ensure the safety of both allies and other affiliates. 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. Conditions were no different on December 17, 1986, which was why Sandoval was given the assignment of B-wing hall boss that afternoon. 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. She had no time for a final hug, a final kiss, one last chance for her family to tell her how much they loved and cherished her. Nothing during three weeks of by-the-book lectures at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice training academy had prepared him for the helplessness he felt as a lone correctional officer constantly surrounded by violent criminals. texas syndicate hand signs - consultoriagrilloandgrillo.com Leave them on the floor! said Sandoval. I had the burden lifted from my shoulders., You have these inmates, said an Ellis I correctional officer, where you write em up [for rule infractions] and nothing happens. It is a sign of recognition between those that are in the occult. Apparently the inmates at Ellis I had noticed this as well, for their sweet talk had gotten to him. United States v. Velasquez, No. 15-51164 (5th Cir. 2018) 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. I was a damn good officer, he told both me and them. Sandoval knew this. Extra guards to supervise the gathering had to come from some other post. On another occasion, Vicente asked Sandoval to deliver the phone message that Vicente needed money to buy arts and crafts supplies. Some prisoners do so to affirm and convey gang membership, indicate their rank in that gang, or display their ability to endure pain. Chow time meant that vast numbers of inmates would be crowded together in one room. Although numerically and financially inferior and facing multiple powerful advisories, the Barrio Azteca gang managed to murder many significant members of their enemies in several Texas prison facilities. In your house you can walk around in the dark and not bang your shins because you know every square inch, said a former Ellis I officer. 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. Barrio Azteca members also are involved in alien smuggling, arson, assault, auto theft, burglary, extortion, intimidation, kidnapping, robbery, and weapons violations. In fact, his disciplinary record was almost spotless, and he enjoyed the privileged position of commissary clerk. Wanted on suspicion of: Murder, aggravated assault and marijuana trafficking. texas syndicate hand signs According to Sandoval, Howard Digby, a runty burglar with a pug nose and heavily tattooed arms, was known as a captains boy, a snitch who filled his bosss cup with coffee and his ear with prison gossip. Word spread through the unit the way it always had, at bewildering speed: Joe Arredondo was a dead man. But the first six months is hell. Sandoval was determined to tough it out. It criticized TDCJs good ol boy system, which Sandoval claimed has ruled with an iron fist since the penal system was first established. Hispanic guards, he said, were either coerced into quitting or found doing something wrong. Supervisors treated inmates like animals. He further wrote, I am not the only one who worked there that knows that TDCJ is linked to the gangs and their illegal activities. I knew he didnt have nothing to do with it. Texas Syndicate Number eight on our list of biggest organized crime groups in America is the Texas Syndicate, established as a prison gang in order to counter other gangs preying on. 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. Murder and Prison Gangs: A Mexican American Experience Inside a Texas 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 . The 2000s and Today And as in any society, some lead while others are led. His neck had been slashed; his head was all but severed. It was a pleasure to deal with an inmate man to man, for once. Wear the Texas Syndicate tattoo; 6. Eventually, however, Vicente and Garcia began to ask for more than a light. The B-wing, a loud and grossly overcrowded area, was considered the hellhole, in the words of Cade Crippin, the CO who worked the B-wing with Sandoval the afternoon of the murder. tj springer wife services@everythingwellnessdpc.com (470)-604-9800 ; how to cite a foreign constitution chicago Facebook. They often use the letters "BA" or numbers "21" as their identifying symbols and tattoos. Throughout the Sandoval trial, guards on the witness stand were asked if they had ever stopped a gang member from murdering an inmate. At the Ferguson Unit, for example, guards wore special caps sporting a patch designed by an inmate. Texas Syndicate - Wikipedia The Barrio Azteca gang members organize themselves using a paramilitary structure and apply English terms or their Spanish equivalent words for ranks such as captain, lieutenant, and sergeant. One of them is fear. 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.. Today, the Texas Syndicate is both a prison and a street gang. He was a drug dealer, with connections dating back to his days peddling heroin in El Paso. It is seemingly a simple, humble favor asked of men in gray by men in white. 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. Abidance by these laws was enforced with violence, often resulting in beatings or executions of those who crossed the line. Current Anti-Gang Efforts and Initiatives >> No one, he seemed to be suggesting, was capable of telling the truth about Luis Sandovalnot even Sandoval himself. Arredondo took the two hundred dollars, went home, and blew the money. When Vicente and his friend Armando Garciaalso a pleasant, nonconfrontational fellowbegan to ask Sandoval if he had a light, the guard refused at first, and finally decided, after repeated requests, what the hell. The Texas Syndicate - YouTube Gangs are a serious problem negatively impacting American culture. The caller, known as El Carpintero, was a convicted child molester from El Paso who nonetheless had managed to obtain a job, under an assumed name, as an x-ray technician at Ellis I. El Carpintero instructed Sandoval to drive to a location in Huntsville where a sack containing marijuana awaited. And all you see is white shirts. [3] Syndicate members have been known to carry out contract killings for Los Zetas, the paramilitary wing of the Gulf Cartel. The court transportation system is the first weak point. I looked up and as he was running by, he looked at melike he wanted to cry, you know? 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. texas syndicate hand signsjack paar cause of death. Sign Installer Wanted - Fresno California - Employment Job Listings The following day, Chaplain Alexander Taylor, who witnessed Sandovals efforts, wrote the CO III a letter of commendation. 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.. 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.