International Journal on Criminology Volume 3, Number 2, Fall 2015 | Page 39

International Journal on Criminology
C - USA: An Alternative Form of Organized Crime
After ten years of proceedings, a trial began on April 6, 2015 in Denver, Colorado,
placing some of America's most notorious gangsters on the stand. 48
The boss of the Mexican Mafia in the Administrative Maximum
Facility (ADX), Florence, Texas, 49 Silvestre “Chikali” Mayorqui-Rivera, stands accused
of having fatally beaten Manuel “Tati” Torrez, a member of the Mexican Mafia Hard
Core, transferred from California. The case dates back to April 21, 2005 and the events
occurred during an exercise period in the prison yard.
Chikali faces life imprisonment for first degree murder. His accomplice Richard
“Chuco” Santiago, also serving a life sentence for a similar crime, risks the death penalty.
The accused are being tried separately.
Chikali and Torrez should never have been in the yard at the same time without
guards in the immediate vicinity. The response teams were slow to arrive, after having
mobilized to the wrong area. By the time of their arrival Torrez was dead. It was learned
that the whole scenario was a trap which backfired against Torrez—a premeditated and
revealing act, which should not have been allowed to happen in one of the most closely
supervised American prisons.
What Americans call “prison gangs” are structured criminal networks whose
activities extend around the federal prison structure and across state boundaries. The
gangs also operate in the outside world, via members released from prison. They usually
return to their home communities and reconnect with the gang to which they belonged.
They act as representatives of the prison gangs and recruit members of street gangs to
carry out criminal acts on their behalf.
Prison gangs control, among other things, the distribution of drugs within
prisons. They now also have a dominant influence over their distribution in the street
in certain areas, especially through the links they maintain with the Mexican cartels,
which ensure a continuous supply.
Of the five national-level prison gangs, two have members or partners in at least
two foreign countries. Prison gangs are well organized and governed by a code and
established rules, rigorously applied by the gang leaders.
Regional prison gangs, confined to the prison systems of no more than one or
two states, represent a more modest, although growing threat, as ever more links with
drug suppliers are forged. The largest “regional” prison gang operates in Texas.
Local or state gangs, especially those located along the border between the
United States and Mexico, have long had links with Mexican cartels, and can be among
the most dangerous. On April 11, 2014, members and associates of the Texas Mexican
Mafia, including one “general,” were sentenced to long prison terms for their roles in
drug trafficking and racketeering. At Del Rio, Javier Guerrero, 24, was sentenced to
three consecutive life sentences “with a supplement of 210 months” for racketeering
in prison and attacking a guard. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, “general” Robert “Lil Bit”
48
Denver Post, April 6, 2015.
49
United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX)
34