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Operation Smokin’ Aces: Massive ‘Mafia Style’ Sweep In The OC Leads to 129 Indictments

SANTA ANA – Over 800 law enforcement personnel from Orange County, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and the U.S. Marshals Service arrested dozens of dangerous, indicted gang defendants throughout Orange, Riverside, and Los Angeles Counties as part of “Operation Smokin’ Aces.”  Approximately 70 locations were included during this morning’s operations. A total of 129 individuals are being indicted either federally or at the state level at the request of the Orange County District Attorney (OCDA), at the conclusion of a two and a half year investigation. Charges include: Federal racketeering, conspiracy to commit murder, extortion, narcotic trafficking, and gun trafficking.  

 The Orange County Superior Court has unsealed an indictment on 43 defendants for their participation in assaults and an attempted murder on 12 inmates in the Orange County jail at the direction of a Hispanic California prison gang (Prison Gang). The OCDA presented a case to the Grand Jury for seven days involving 38 witnesses. The case against the 43 defendants is the largest state Grand Jury case in Orange County history. Three additional defendants have been charged in a separate but related case for murder.

 Operation Smokin’ Aces Investigation

The Santa Ana Gang Task Force (SAGTF) comprised of members from the FBI, Santa Ana Police Department (SAPD), Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, initiated an investigation in May 2010. The focus was a neighborhood in the southeast portion of Santa Ana that was being plagued with gang crime that included gang related shootings and narcotic sales. The scope of the investigation widened after the local gangs were tied to associates of the Prison Gang and their narcotic suppliers. 

 The SAGTF conducted over 140 undercover operations and seized 67 firearms, 22 pounds of methamphetamine, one and a half pounds of heroin, and three pounds of cocaine during the course of the investigation. Five of the firearms seized were linked to drive-by/walk-up shootings in the southeast portion of Santa Ana. 

 The United States Attorney for the Central District of California will prosecute the federal cases, and the OCDA will prosecute the state cases. The Orange County defendants were indicted Aug. 16, 2013. For more information on the federal cases, please visit the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California at http://www.justice.gov/usao/cac/.

Background of the Prison Gang

The Prison Gang operates throughout California and exercises control over “Southern Hispanic” inmates within the state prison and jail systems. Southern Hispanics are defined as any Hispanic person in custody from Southern California. The Prison Gang also controls criminal street gangs, whose members pay drug-sale “taxes” to the Prison Gang as a sign of respect and as an assurance that they will be viewed as loyal to the Prison Gang if and when they are arrested and incarcerated in jail or state prison.

Circumstances of the Indictment

Indictments were obtained in 12 cases involving 12 victims against 43 defendants. All of the defendants face sentences ranging from eight years in state prison up to life in state prison. They each face various charges including felony attempted murder, felony assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, felony aggravated assault, and felony conspiracy to commit assault. They face sentencing enhancements for criminal street gang activity and many of the defendants have prior strike convictions and/or prior prison convictions.

 All but a few of the defendants are members of criminal street gangs who are subject to the control of the Prison Gang. The few defendants who are not criminal street gang members are “Southern Hispanic” inmates who were housed with the other defendants and committed the crimes under orders from the Prison Gang.

Between 2011 and 2012, the defendants are accused of committing assaults against 12 men in the Orange County Jail at the direction of the Prison Gang. They are accused of committing assaults in groups against individual victims. The injuries to the victims ranged from bruises up to 20 staples in the head. The motives for the attacks included:

 Three victims were assaulted because their criminal street gang failed to pay “taxes” to the Prison Gang

Two victims owed money to leaders of the Prison Gang

Two victims were in bad standing with the Prison Gang for violating gang rules

One victim admitted the existence of the Prison Gang in a police report

One victim falsely claimed to be a Southern California gang member, when he was actually a Chicago gang member

One victim was a member of a criminal street gang that falsely invoked the authority of a Prison Gang leader without his permission in the commission of a crime

One victim was believed to be an informant

 One victim was collecting “taxes” without permission from the Prison Gang

To view the 12 indictments against the 43 state defendants, visitwww.orangecountyda.com and select “Operation Smokin’ Aces” on the homepage Media Center. The defendants in custody at Orange County Jail are expected to be arraigned Sept. 26, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. in Department C-5, Central Justice Center, Santa Ana.

 Related Homicide Case (Case # 13CF3032)

The Task Force tied (42) Orange County street gangs into the investigation, including several associates of the Prison Gang. Three Orange County gang member defendants, apart from the 129 indictments, are being charged for murder by the OCDA. The murder was carried out in Mexico at the direction of the Prison Gang. 

 This homicide was investigated by SAPD and The OCSD with the assistance of the San Diego Sheriff’s Department International Liaison Unit as part of Operation Smokin’ Aces, but is separate from the indictments and did not occur in the jail. Robert Gaxiola, 43, Jose Anguiano, 35, both believed to be in Mexico with a warrant currently issued for their arrests, and Ismael Esquivel, 34, in custody without bail, are charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit murder, one felony count of murder, and sentencing enhancements for murder committed for a criminal street gang purpose, and committing a crime for the benefit of a criminal street gang. Anguiano is also charged with an additional sentencing enhancement for a prison prior conviction for receiving stolen property in 2004. Esquivel is also charged with additional sentencing enhancements for crime-bail-crime in 2012, and for being a third striker with four prior convictions for robberies and assaults between 1999 and 2000. Gaxiola is also charged with additional sentencing enhancements for crime-bail-crime in 2010, and four prison prior convictions for possession for sale of methamphetamine in 2000, possession of methamphetamine in 2004, commercial burglary in 2007, and possession of heroin in 2009. If convicted, they each face a sentence of life in state prison without the possibility of parole. Esquivel is expected to be arraigned Sept. 26, 2013, at 1:30 p.m. in Department C-5, Central Justice Center. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Gaxiola and Anguiano are encouraged to call (855) TIP-OCCS.

 At the time of the crime, Esquivel is accused of being a high-ranking member of the Prison Gang living in Orange County and Gaxiola and Anguiano are accused of being gang members who traveled back and forth between Southern California and Mexico.

 Prior to April 2012, 39-year-old Juanita Carillo-Ortiz is accused of telling members of Orange County criminal street gangs that she represented the Prison Gang in Los Angeles and had the authority of the gang to collect “taxes,” angering the Prison Gang leaders. She is accused of telling Orange County gang members not to pay “taxes” to known leaders of the Prison Gang.

 Carillo-Ortiz is accused of arranging to travel to Mexico on April 1, 2012, to transport drugs and meet with gang members in Tijuana. Esquivel is accused of conspiring with Gaxiola and Anguiano and ordering that she be murdered in Mexico at the direction of the Orange County Prison Gang.  

 On or about April 1, 2012, Carillo-Ortiz took a bus across the border into Mexico. Gaxiola and Anguiano are accused of meeting her in a Tijuana hotel room under the pretense of discussing gang business. They are accused of murdering Carillo-Ortiz. They are accused of keeping her body for several days and then burning it and dumping it in a remote area in Mexico.

Carillo-Ortiz’s body was discovered April 6, 2012, and identified through DNA.

  • Smitty says:

    how many of the gangsters are affiliated with unions?