Released or parole members who generate money for the gang must surrender a 10% tax ("the dime") of all proceeds toward the Texas Syndicate in prison. It was also a dangerous practice in light of the fact that a narrow corridor intersected the west end of the B-wing and only an officer standing at that end could see what was going on in the corridor. The Texas Syndicate (Spanish: Sindicato Tejano) is a mostly Texas -based street and prison gang consisting of predominantly Mexican American membership. The horned hand-sign shows allegiance to . During August and September of 1985, a long-standing rivalry between the Mexican Mafia and the TS exploded into a free-for-all throughout the prison system, leaving eleven inmates dead. Some of the states most violent criminals were housed there. Prison officials could boast that their residents stood less chance of being killed than did the average Texas city dweller. Abidance by these laws was enforced with violence, often resulting in beatings or executions of those who crossed the line. The Texas Syndicate is headed by a presi dent and vice president who are elected by the entire membership. 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. The new boots new habit, like everything else, was duly noted by the inmates. When Luis Sandoval went to work for the Texas prison system, he did the wrong favors for the wrong people. 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. Velasquez, No. But to prison officials, the story is as familiar as the smell of marijuana in a cellblock and the sight of an inmate with a hand-tooled shank. Recalling the letter deliveries and phone messages, Sandoval might have wondered just what he had gotten himself into and how deeply. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 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. 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. A tattoo can also be a sign or code to display their crimes on their skin for all . 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. But the evidence gathered by Justice clearly added up to a violation of the Eight Amendments protection from cruel and unusual punishment. Justice therefore ordered that the two thousand building tenders be replaced by more prison guards, who would police the inmates with a firm but civilized hand. It was a blind spot, and unit officials hoped the inmates wouldnt notice. The thought worked away at his nerves. (This inmates name has been changed as a condition of his interview.) Produced by the Texas Joint Crime Information Center . Show More Show Less 20 of 32 7. 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. Several of them testified vigorously that Ellis I was understaffed and overcrowded, and that the unit was riddled with blind spots. Sandoval weighed his choices. Garcia himself was not a TS member. Theres no way to shut them down, Sandoval said. Guards could still smell burning marijuana and still see inmates giggling to themselves. 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. A few days later, on April 12, 1991, FBI agents showed up at the apartment where Sandoval had been hiding and took him to the Los Angeles County jail. Youre telling us its a coincidence that you werent down at the end of the hallway? Intelligence & Counterterrorism Division . Each gang had its own hierarchy and its own rules; each member was not permitted to leave his gang, even outside of prison, except by his own death. Leave them blank to get signed up. [2] As a street gang, heavy activity has been reported in Austin, Corpus Christi, the Rio Grande Valley and the Dallas Fort Worth area in Texas. 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. Not one of them said that Sandoval was a bad officer; many, in fact, went out of their way to laud his abilities. 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. For about three months thereafter, while state officials sought a long-term solution, every prison unit experienced a total lockdown. 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. I was in the dayroom. Take over the hallway for me, Sandoval said to his subordinate while handing him his keys. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Beneath the cosmetic alterations, however, things at Ellis I are just as Sandoval left them. [2], Texas Syndicate members abide by a constitution requiring members to:[1], Additionally, gang leadership is determined by democratic elections, requiring a unanimous decision. They often use the letters "BA" or numbers "21" as their identifying symbols and tattoos. There was no further violence, a signal to those who understood gang behavior that Arredondo had been snuffed out by one of his own rather than by a rival gang. This time, however, four Internal Affairs officers greeted him inside by reading him his rights and charging him with murder. And the courier must possess a particular power: He must be able to walk through walls. SMU is among the Texas colleges that have unique ways of showing pride -- with their hands. tj springer wife [email protected] (470)-604-9800 ; how to cite a foreign constitution chicago Facebook. Marshals North Texas Fugitive Task Force, including DPS Special Agents, located and arrested GONZALEZ at a local motel in Lubbock.GONZALEZ is a violent offender with a history of aggravated robbery, aggravated assault . To pay for his legal expenses, his mother sold the family home. Or if they cared to enforce the rule. Garcia, 38, is a member of the Texas Syndicate gang with ties to the Rio Grande Valley. I cant honestly tell you why he did it, said the inmate of Sandoval. The corridor where Joe Arredondo was murdered is now permanently guarded. 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. Recruitment is conducted through social ties and involves a background check to screen for informants.[1]. Inmates know their surroundings, and they know that the surroundings are theirs. Current Location: Most of Texas, Other Zones in The United States; 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.. 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. Did you know that 40% of all inmate escapes occur during transport? More accurate investigations lower the number to about 4000, with some sources even going as low as 3800. Receive the latest law enforcement in-depth information, news and products. But they werent enough: A guard like Luis Sandoval would be assigned to a hallway filled with hundreds of inmates. I was a damn good officer, he told both me and them. 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. 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. At the Ferguson Unit, for example, guards wore special caps sporting a patch designed by an inmate. All Garcia and his friend Vicente lacked was a reliable drug mule who could be counted on to transport drugs into the prison. He continued to walk, step after tortured step, a full fifty yards, before collapsing, dead, in the doorway of the infirmary. Sandoval did not know any warden, ranking officer, or CO at Ellis I who did not have at least one snitch. Somehow an inmate by the name of Vicente had gotten past the new boots boys. Its a society all its own. Uneasy truces between gangs have developed. Texas Chicano Brotherhood 11. When asked about it, Sandoval testified that the report merely contained Schapers accusations, which Sandoval denied then and would deny now, under oath. But the sudden absence of gang wars did not mean that the gangs had gone away. Sandoval knew this. 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. It was a pleasure to deal with an inmate man to man, for once. Hes bleeding! He whirled and burst into the B-wing hallway. Sandoval experienced the escalated violence in the summer of 1985 first hand as he initiated . Post author: Post published: June 10, 2022; Post category: do coyotes eat crows; Post comments: . The gang cooperates with allied Mexican Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTO) or transports the illicit cargo themselves. They reinvest these funds to fuel the gang's supply of drugs, guns and ammunition. The Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners. 1 was here. By current estimates, more than 2,000 members make up their ranks. Sandoval told me that he took the money, though he denied it in court. On March 19, the name of Luis Sandoval was called three times in the Walker County courthouse, but the defendant did not respond. 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.. ), The Sandoval trial was a rare public washing of the Texas penal systems bloodstained linen. By that time, things were quiet again at Ellis I. FBI sources have also reported that a code comprised of symbols and dots is primarily utilized by incarcerated Barrio Azteca gang members to correspond with other inmates within the prison system. 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. Inmates fashioned shanks out of road signs, door hinges, food trays, typewriter platen rods, and field equipment. 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. (Today, Sandoval says that statement was coerced.) 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. He was pronounced dead at seven that evening, a victim of twenty stab wounds. White Knights (Texas) White Prison Gangs. Texas Department of Public Safety . 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. Gangs are a serious problem negatively impacting American culture. Fifty-two prisoners were murdered in a 21-month period that became known as the " war years ." Over 50 different gangs were represented in our study. Richard Valdemar retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department after spending most of his 33 years on the job combating gangs. Sandoval was then ordered to take off his uniform and replace it with inmate furlough clothes. hornitos tequila vs patron. Compared with Luis Sandovals quiet life in Alice, Ellis I must have seemed like an opium den. [1], Development of the Texas Syndicate was initially motivated by self-protection against the historical "building tenders" in prison. The majority of these, though, were only marginally involved with the gang activities. Go to the shop Go to the shop. The money chiefly comes from drugs. We in the free world classify inmates according to motivation: those who do not wish to live a life of crime and those who know no other life; those who wish only to do their time and get out and those who function best in a kill-or-be-killed environment. 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. But the report was not a signed confession. But the system will not change. By the end of the eighties, the public fretting over prison gangs had dissipated. His assistant wardens run the building. Indeed, Peterson said to me that his units drug problem isnt rampant, but he also acknowledged that much has escaped his attention over the years. In addition to Shamoo Rodriguez and Porky Amaro, 11 others have already pled guilty. Two years after lighting his first cigarette, Sandoval was arrested and charged with murder for allegedly aiding a gang plot to kill an inmate. 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. 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. Beneath them in the gang hierarchy are captains, lieutenants, sergeants of arms, and numerous soldiers. 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. The Texas Syndicate, more than La Eme or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners, such as the "Border . 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.