Texas Syndicate Tattoos: Just a few weeks before the Cesario Gonzales homicide that Luis Sandoval witnessed, Arturo Astro Aguilar, a Texas Mexican Mafia member was murdered on August 22, 1985 in the Eastham Unit by the Texas Syndicate. Ironically, this historical and troubling development came on the heels of the significant victories of prison reform cases which were meant to curtail the conditions of prisons, yet set the stage for prison gangs and gang violence to foment. Italy Albanian emigrants started arriving at Italian ports in 1991. Ethnicity and state identity likewise impacted Luis H. Sandovals relationships with inmates. (Associated Press), In June 2008, Texas Syndicate member Emanuel Camacho Gomez fatally guns down 27-year-old Rose Anne Martinez in San Antonio, Texas. Fifty-two. Crucially, this process of selection was also highly racialized. Race and Ethnicity in Alice, TX. In July 2007, Texas Syndicate members murder Marcelino "Mars" Rodriguez Torres in Mc Allen, Texas after the gang suspects Rodriguez is a police informant. Enver Sekiraqa : Leading person of organized crime in Kosovo, aka the boss of the bosses, who is on the Interpols wanted list for several crimes. He quite simply may have wanted or needed the money. An Introduction to the New York Albanian Mob. Prosecutors announced they were pursuing criminal charges against two British soldiers who took part in the Bloody Sunday. (Associated Press), On Austin July 2, 2001, Texas Syndicate members murder female TS associate Jove Rios for conducting business with the Mexikanemi. In October 2004, the FBI arrested 22 men who worked for it. Either he comes out an old man or he doesnt come out at all. Correspondingly, Vasquez, Garcia, and Carrillo who were the earlier victims were all incarcerated for robbery or burglary convictions. He also placed phone calls for them to the outside world and relayed harmless, though highly likely coded, messages for their illicit activity. Travis McDonald, the prison prosecutor for Texas stated, Its hard to try a case against a guard in Huntsville. People here dont want to believe a guard would do something like that (McKay, 1991). Mexican Americans exist in a difficult space as a protected group under the White category but not Black, such as reflected in the ruling of Hernandez v. Texas. The method was also wed with ideas of race because prison gangs are primarily built within racial structures. - Were still trying to learn about their culture and figure out what makes them tick, James Farley, FBI supervisory special agent, and expert on organized crime, says of the Albanians. The Gonzales homicide was merely one representative example of the larger problem of violence stemming from the war between the Texas Syndicate and the Texas Mexican Mafia that raged inside the walls of the prison units. Both were also newly employed prison guards, a continuation of the 1980s-increased-hiring-wave. Their exit does not exist and the prison gang has now also gained a member that will remain in their proximity for the duration of their sentence, equivalent to their life. (Ortiz v. State, 93 S.W.3d 79 (Tex. App. Due to the fact that the Mafia families are based on the blood ties, which is a factor that restricts the number of the clan members, the bonds between them are very strong, which makes getting close to and infiltrating into them almost impossible. Testifying for murder defendant and former Ellis I guard Luis Sandoval, a string of prison employees said the doors were left open despite a policy requiring that they be locked at all times (McKay, 1991). A mural in Derry commemorating Bloody Sunday. This study is also meant to highlight not only Mexican American prison gangs but the overall Mexican American experience for inmates and guards within the confines of the world of prisons. Steve Fischer [Sandovals attorney], however, contends that Sandoval had not unlocked the door and that officials there knew that guards frequently left the door unlocked (Fair, 1991). It was the recently formed arm of the TDCJ that investigated Sandovals involvement in the murder. He was twenty-one and she was fifteen. (Gang Intelligence 101), In 1980, the Texas Syndicate gain full control of the prison systems drug trade after the practice of using building tenders to assist guards is ruled out by a Civil court. 116th Street Crew The 116th Street crew, also known as the Uptown crew, is a powerful crew within the Genovese crime family. Ellis I Unit prison guard Patrick Ware described a similar tactic used by inmates related to downing the duck. Ware and numerous other current and former guards testified that gang members commonly try to influence prison officers to smuggle drugs to them. International activity Scandinavia "The ethnic Albanian mafia is very powerful and extremely violent," said Kim Kliver, chief investigator for organized crime with the Danish National Police. Sunday. The Albanian mafia in Brussels has monopoly over activities such as "narcotics and arms deals" according to Belgian sources. Zef Mustafa : Albanian Mafia kingpin based out of New York. So, in a single one-way trip, they can carry up to six million D-marks. 01-07-00443-CR (Tex. TDC guard indicted in 1986 slaying of inmate. Houston Chronicle. David Weeks, a special prison prosecutor stated, more than 90 percent of inmate homicides are gang-ordered and more than one-half of the assaults are the result of gang warfare (Klimko, 1987). They are used for the transfer of money from Germany which amounts to a billion of D-marks a year. Blacks had a virtual non-existent population in Alice, and the greater South Texas region for that matter. Sunday Bloody Sunday Lyrics [Intro] Yeah, mm-hm [Verse 1] I can't believe the news today Oh, I can't close my eyes and make it go away [Refrain] How long? Five months earlier, in August 1971 and against a backdrop of escalating violence and increased bombings in Northern Ireland, a new law was introduced giving the authorities the power to imprison . Immediately after the trial, the community responded. This exposed the longer historical process of Mexican Americans in United States history being perceived as bandits and criminals without full legal recourse. * Overlapping "TS", or an "S" superimposed over a "T", * longhorn steer horns, or any figure with horns, Criminal activities: Alfred Shkurti (also known as Aldo Bare): The boss of one of the most notorious criminal syndicates in Albania known as the Banda e Lushnjs (The Lushnja Gang). He was one of the masterminds behind the kidnapping of former Belgian Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants in 1989. Kapllan Murat : Belgium's most notorious mobster. *Alfredo Aguilar is a doctoral candidate in the department of history at Texas Tech University, References South Texas Syndicate estimated lease property, in the most recent month of production (10-01-2022), produced 159 bbls of oil and 0 mcf of natural gas. (Gang Intelligence 101), On Dec. 21, 2006, Texas Syndicate members are arrested for the contract killing of Julio A. Serrano. In fact, the building tender system had purposely ignored Mexican Americans as potential candidates based on racial ideas. Caught with at least $125 million in heroin, Lika issued a $400,000 contract on the prosecutor Alan Cohen and the detective Jack Delemore, both placed under protective custody. But the circumstances surrounding the murder also exposed internal issues of the prison system which the trial brought to light. His brief story represented the limited social and economic opportunities that impacted many Tejanos; the continuance of a larger, repeated, and unceasing story in Texas. Statistical Atlas. Robert Draper, a journalist for the Texas Monthly provided an apt description of this homicide scene: Help me, Boss! Turning around, Sandoval saw a Hispanic inmate [Cesario Gonzales] standing behind a hallway crash-gate, clinging to the bars with both hands. It was established in the 1960's at Folsom Prison in California in direct response to the other California prison gangs (notably the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia), which were attempting to prey on native Texas inmates. Their options were either possibly losing their job, or continue assisting the inmates and they would remain silent. (El Paso Times), In 1994, Barrio Azteca members murder a Texas Syndicate member at the Wallace unit in Colorado City, Texas. These inmates came in for robberies and burglaries but had to either graduate to murder or be murdered. While Sandoval hid from authorities prior to the trial he wrote and sent a 24-page letter to his mother Delia Sandoval, whom he asked to then send it to members of the media. In his testimony, Ortiz alleged that while in his cell with Hernandez, he was told about Sandovals role of leaving his post and leaving the door unlocked (Fair, 1991). Texas Syndicate, a criminal organization whose members and associates engage in acts of violence, including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion and narcotics distribution.. Some 3,700 people died over the course of the four-decade conflict. It was on this day and in the following . On March 7, 1965, police, state troopers, and a citizen " posse " violently attacked civil rights marchers attempting to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, United States. Albanian "banks" in Germany are a special story. Ortiz was the cellmate of John A. Hernandez, a high-ranking member of the Texas Syndicate. These prison gang related homicides from the war between the Texas Syndicate and the Texas Mexican Mafia were not only happening in the Ellis I unit, it stretched beyond and consumed the entirety of Texas prison units. As a street gang, heavy activity has been reported in Austin, Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, the Rio Grande Valley and the Dallas Fort Worth area. 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.