Multi-agency operation nabs 33 violent gang members in border town of Uvalde

“Gang violence does not happen here in Texas, we will bring down the full force of justice on these notorious criminals,” Gov. Greg Abbott said as he directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to increase resources there to eliminate organized crime in September 2022.

Nearly two years ago, a multi-agency operation, made possible by additional state funding and criminal investigative oversight from DPS, began targeting a sprawling organized crime network operating on the Texas-Mexico border. The investigation focused on the sale and distribution of narcotics, weapons, extortion, aggravated assault, and organized criminal activity by several gangs associated with transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican cartels.

DPS deployed special agents to target gang activity in the Uvalde area, with a priority to focus on Tango-affiliated gangs and the Latin King gang, which are classified by DPS as Tier 1 and Tier 2 gangs, respectively.

After an extensive investigation, 33 gang members were arrested, including the Latin Kings, West Texas Tango, Tango Blast, Tango Orejon, Tango Aguilon, Texas Syndicate, Paisa, Texas Mexican Mafia, Maniac Latin Disciples and the San Antonio Walked Down Gang , according to a statement from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.

The 38th Judicial District handed down 68 state indictments regarding drug trafficking and involvement in organized criminal activities. The U.S. Western District, Del Rio Division, handed down 17 federal racketeering and conspiracy charges.

Texas DPS criminal investigators have identified gang activity “as a growing and serious problem in Uvalde and the surrounding area.”

They were joined in the investigation by investigators from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, the Uvalde Police Department and the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations. The 38th District Attorney’s Border Prosecution Unit and the US Attorney’s Office are prosecuting.

The investigation targeted the Uvalde area nearly 10 years after a joint operation in 2015 took down major gang operations there, leading to the dismantling of the Latin Kings, the sheriff’s office said. Since that time, gang activity has increased with “the most recent gang activity involving some of the children of those former incarcerated gang members.”

The investigation was a collaborative effort “to identify and combat violent crimes at the southern border of the United States,” the sheriff said.

“We will not tolerate this criminal activity in our community,” said District Attorney Christina Mitchell. “We will find anyone who participates, collaborates or enables this cancer in our city.”

She also said she anticipates more indictments and arrests coming from the investigation.

The indictments and arrests were issued after 33 Latin King members and associates were convicted in October 2020 of federal racketeering charges.

Officially known as the Nation of the Latin King and Queen Almighty, the Latin King gang has tens of thousands of members operating in sectors across various states, law enforcement officials explained. Center Square. In 2020, 33 members of the Austin, San Antonio and Uvalde chapters of Latin King’s Texas Central Region were sentenced to 45 and 288 months in federal prison. They were convicted for their role in operating a criminal enterprise in Central Texas for ten years beginning in 2005, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

Four leaders received the most prison terms, ranging from nearly 16 to 22 years. They include Texas-Central Region leader “Inca” Pete Perez of Austin; San Antonio chapter leader “Inca” Joe Pierce (“Dro”); Uvalde’s chapter leader, “Incas” James Marty Long (“Whiteboy”) and Jacob Mariscal (“Righteous”).

They were convicted of conspiracy “to commit unlawful acts, including attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, extortion, robbery, various firearms offenses and drug distribution involving marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.”

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“Violent gangs like the Latin Kings are made up of members who wake up every day with the intention of committing violence, dealing drugs, breaking our laws and threatening our social fabric. They simply cannot be allowed to run unchecked on our streets,” U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer said at the time.

Acts of violence committed by gang members, according to court records, include: assaulting a rival gang member by hitting him “in the head, face and body with rocks, bats and glass bottles”; conspiring to shoot a rival gang member and providing the gun to do so in retaliation for a Latin King member being stabbed; driving a vehicle into rival gang members; using women to lure rival gang members to a residence where they “were stabbed, punched, hit with a baseball bat”; among other acts of violence, including shootings, stabbings and beatings.