Leader of Gang Found Guilty of Racketeering

The leader of a street gang that controlled narcotics trafficking around Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park was convicted along with two associates Thursday on federal racketeering charges.

Twenty-one other members of the Columbia Lil’ Cycos, a clique of the 18th Street gang, previously pleaded guilty in the case, the latest in a series of federal prosecutions against local gangs under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

Until their indictment two years ago, the Lil’ Cycos were collecting about $85,000 a week in protection money from street-level narcotics dealers in the neighborhood northeast of the park, according to testimony in the six-week Los Angeles federal court trial.

Those who challenged their rule often paid with their lives.

Assistant U.S. Attys. Luis Li and Bruce Riordan said the gang tried to pattern itself after an East Coast Mafia family. Instead of squandering their money, they spent much of it on suburban houses, two restaurants, a juice parlor and a used car lot. Some of it allegedly was sent to Mexico for safekeeping.

The gang’s leader, Francisco “Pancho Villa” Martinez, 38, ran the enterprise from behind bars, issuing orders through his wife, Janie Maria Garcia, 51. FBI agents seized about $450,000 in cash along with thousands of dollars worth of jewelry when they raided her home in Monterey Park. Garcia went to trial with her husband but after three weeks pleaded guilty to racketeering charges.

Martinez, also a member of the prison-based Mexican Mafia, was found guilty Thursday on 12 criminal counts involving racketeering, murder, assault, narcotics distribution, money laundering and use of a firearm during a violent crime.

His chief enforcer, Anthony “Coco” Zaragoza, 29, of Maywood was convicted on nine counts. They included three murders and three murder conspiracies. Alberto “Nefty” Pina, 29, of Los Angeles, described as a loyal soldier in the gang, was found guilty of conspiring to commit racketeering and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The U.S. attorney’s office said all three are expected to receive life prison terms when they are sentenced Aug. 5 by U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew.

Zaragoza, who has 18th Street gang logos tattooed on his cheek and neck, was the only defendant to take the stand during the trial. He admitted collecting about $5,000 a week in “rent” money from drug dealers who operated on gang turf, but he denied taking part in any murders.

However, former Lil’ Cycos member Juan “Termite” Romero, who was the prosecution’s star witness, testified that he and Zaragoza killed gang member Carlos Alberto Lopez, known as “Truco,” in September 1994. Also killed in the MacArthur Park attack was Donatella Contreras, a companion of Lopez.

Romero said Martinez gave the order to kill Lopez for trying to take over his territory on behalf of a rival Mexican Mafia member. Contreras was killed “because she was in the same car as Truco,” Romero testified.

After the assassinations, Romero said, he rose rapidly in the ranks. He said he became the most productive rent collector in the organization, delivering about $40,000 a month to Martinez’s wife and pocketing about $8,000 for himself.

In March 1999, the FBI raided the homes of Garcia and her relatives, seizing the cash that she and Martinez were hoarding. Not realizing that the search grew out of information gathered through wiretaps, Garcia and Zaragoza began looking for an informer in the ranks. Garcia openly speculated that it was Romero.

Angered that he was being falsely accused, Romero wrote a letter to Martinez saying it was obvious “you don’t trust us any more and we don’t trust you. We’re not going to let your family put us down. From here on, we’ll walk alone.”

Later that year, Martinez allegedly sent a letter from prison to a gang member, saying it was time to “fumigate the Termite.” Romero was shot and seriously wounded, but not killed, outside the gang-owned auto lot. Afterward, he agreed to talk to authorities.

The case against the Lil’ Cycos follows three recent prosecutions in Los Angeles federal court of members of the Mexican Mafia. Federal authorities are preparing to go to trial later this year against leaders of the Wah Ching, an Asian gang operating in the San Gabriel Valley.