{"id":285350,"date":"2026-04-25T09:48:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:48:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285350\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T09:48:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T09:48:24","slug":"dozens-of-mexican-mafia-members-arrested-in-california-crackdown-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285350\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of Mexican mafia members arrested in California crackdown | California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">More than two dozen members and associates of the Mexican mafia were arrested during an early morning crackdown in southern <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/us-news\/california\" data-link-name=\"in body link\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">California<\/a>, federal authorities said on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The FBI and other federal and local agencies executed search and arrest warrants at locations mostly in Orange county, south of Los Angeles, according to the US attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">A total of 43 people have been indicted on charges including murder, kidnapping, extortion, running an illegal gambling operation and drug trafficking, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">Officers seized 120lbs (54kg) of methamphetamine, more than 8lbs (4kg) of fentanyl, along with 25 firearms and more than $30,000 in cash, officials said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The Mexican mafia was started in the 1950s at a juvenile jail and grew to an international criminal organization that controls smuggling, drug sales and extortion from inside California\u2019s penal system.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The indictment alleges one leader who was incarcerated used contraband cellphones to oversee the Mexican mafia\u2019s criminal activities from his prison cell from June 2024 to April this year. He directed street gang members to kidnap and assault people, according to court documents. The gang also allegedly sold drugs including fentanyl, meth, heroin and cocaine.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cIt ran illegal gambling businesses within commercial strip malls and private residences,\u201d the US attorney\u2019s office said in a statement. \u201cThe gang collected extortionate taxes and provided security, including the use of violence, to protect the illegal gambling businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The gang is also suspected of a murder at a \u201cgang-controlled\u201d motel in Anaheim, according to the indictment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">\u201cGang members who murder, extort, kidnap and traffic drugs and firearms are a menace to our communities and our way of life,\u201d said first assistant United States attorney Bill Essayli.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-130mj7b\">The defendants will begin making their initial appearances in the coming days in federal court in Los Angeles and Orange counties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"More than two dozen members and associates of the Mexican mafia were arrested during an early morning crackdown&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-285350","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}