They have their money. By the fall of 1986, several months after the gang lockdown policy had been instituted, Joe Arredondos cockiness began to catch up with him. We assembled and maintain a team of the best talent with a keen eye on the future. But things got more interesting when Internal Affairs investigator Dale Schaper walked into the room and handed Sandoval copies of his phone records, showing that 25 phone calls he had made on Vicentes behalf were to a high-ranking TS official named Felix Benavidez. There were many times when he said, I aint gonna do this shit anymore. And wed think, well, maybe were putting too much pressure on him. The investigators didnt tell me much, nor was I particularly inquisitive, he said. The majority of what they do is criminal, from extortion to execution. Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. Coded language is frequently utilized in order to mislead law enforcement as to the true message contained in the letters or telephone calls. He lit cigarettes, which led to other small favors, which led to bigger ones. Instead, he wrote an impassioned, handwritten 24-page letter that his mother sent to a few members of the media. Gang initiation is determined either by a formula system, whereas if the member completes all the requirements (which sometimes include killing another person) and the other basic requirements (such as race, ethnicity etc), they are automatically initiated. The 1,577 gang members currently housed in administrative segregation represent only a fraction of those inmates who actually do the gangs bidding. Between full members and associates both within and outside of the prison system, the group has an estimated membership of around 10,000, and as the name implies, it is a white gang. Sometimes, members who have a problem or muleta that they need to work off in order to achieve better status with the TS are called upon to perform the ordered task. One of them is fear. The west end of the B-wing hallway was left unguarded after three-thirty every afternoon, when the guard normally stationed there was transferred to the chow hall. Joshua Fechter is a reporter covering City Hall and San Antonio politics for the Express-News. The quality of cocaine is frequently discussed in terms of how pretty or how good the girls are. Payments for drugs are often called receipts and cheese.. Had Schapers investigation been thorough, this denial might have seemed implausible to the jury. A relative newcomer in the world of criminal gangs, the Knights Templar Cartel, which operates in Mexico, was officially founded in 2011 after the disbanding ofLa Familia Michiacana. However, they also have plenty of killers who ruthlessly hunt down members of rival gangs. I want to see the mountains, he said. The task would range from a serious assault to murder. But to prison officials, the story is as familiar as the smell of marijuana in a cellblock and the sight of an inmate with a hand-tooled shank. His assignment was one of the toughest jobs in Ellis I. It revealed a world where drugs and weapons are freely available to inmates, where murderous prison gangs control inmate behavior far more than prison guards do, and where the guardians of law and order have just as much trouble distinguishing right from wrong as do the inmates they are watching. Word spread through the unit the way it always had, at bewildering speed: Joe Arredondo was a dead man. That statistic does not come close to reflecting the actual number of TDCJ employees suspected of involvement in corrupt activities. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The experiences of being involved in Prison Gangs. When they got there they found Joe Arredondo lying on his back. Prison officials could boast that their residents stood less chance of being killed than did the average Texas city dweller. In 1967, the Nuestra Familia prison gang (which is comprised of inmates from the northern rural areas of California) and the Texas Syndicate (made up of inmates from Texas) formed to defend themselves against the Mexican Mafia (EME), the Aryan Brotherhood, and Black prison gangs that existed in the California penal system. I cant honestly tell you why he did it, said the inmate of Sandoval. Pascual Salazar, age 36 of Austin, one kilogram or more of heroin. Sandovals apparent relationship with the gang did not escape the attention of the Ellis I population. The defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. In contrast, sixteen current or former Ellis I employees testified. Join The Syndicate Speak with representative Astrid in the Syndicate Enclave and, should you desire, join the Syndicate Go up the stairs within the Enclave to speak with Astrid. After building tenders disappeared due to a court order, the Syndicate's activities turned to drug trafficking, extortion, prostitution, protection, illegal gambling, and contract killing. Receipt of inmates on interstate compact and the current membership in groups with Hispanic and Latino supremacy ideology lend to the threat of an organizing TS within our facilities. The drug trade was lucrative, and Sandoval always seemed to be hurting for money. His assistant wardens run the building. Indeed, Peterson said to me that his units drug problem isnt rampant, but he also acknowledged that much has escaped his attention over the years. The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition, The Campaign to Sabotage Texass Public Schools, West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians. Then hed have to do something for us. On Sandovals shift alone, at least four or five guards had been busted for bringing drugs into prison, but there were others who hadnt been busted and probably never would be. The letter was not what one might expect from a former prison guard. Such communication is often through letters and telephone calls. Sandoval, he was a good kid, said the inmate of the guard who had once done him favors. A federal grand jury indictment, returned in Austin and unsealed yesterday, charges those arrested with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Dale Schaper dutifully typed up his report, and sent it through the proper channels. The members then gather a large amount of fecal matter and urine and proceed to dump it on that new recruit. He was muling, said McDonald. These tattoos commonly include cuernos (horns), and words containing the letters T and S. Blood was gushing out of a hole in his neck; he was unconscious but gasping wildly. And in March 1991, McDonalds prosecution force indicted yet another Ellis I guard. The Texas Syndicate, a prison gang that operates in and outside of penitentiaries, is considered by state law-enforcement officials to be among the most dangerous criminal organizations in. As with some of the groups we'll cover in this list, some people will argue that the people involved with Mungiki are innocent victims in a struggle against the Kenyan government, but their operations closely mimic gang activities. At about five-thirty that afternoon, Sandoval approached CO II Cade Crippin, who was inside a cellblock, observing the inmates. Whether a fraternity, sports team, or college club, there is a great deal of concern over what constitutes legitimate initiation and what constitutes punishable hazing. RELATED:Feds: Fugitive Texas elementary teacher tied to hit men, drug running and kidnapping. Rank is taking care of them.. But they werent enough: A guard like Luis Sandoval would be assigned to a hallway filled with hundreds of inmates. Sandoval took the advice three years after Garcia gave it. New recruits who hoped to join the Knights Templar have been forced to eat a child's heart in order to prove their loyalty to the cause. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. Popular on college campuses, most fraternities or sororities still have rites of initiation, but the focus is now being put on making the experience fun and mildly embarrassing, rather than something that causes a new member to need therapy. With what was left of his final J.C. Penney paycheck, Sandoval and his cousin drove to Las Vegas, a place Sandoval had always yearned to visit. Chip Gaines Bought Larry McMurtrys Historic Texas Bookstore. When Luis Sandoval went to work for the Texas prison system, he did the wrong favors for the wrong people. The decision was reached: Arredondo would be taken down. Likewise the gangs allow inmates the opportunity to be free from isolation and as a result to have a support system. Jun 29, 2022. ogden clinic cardiology . Change). Again, we're listing a terrorist group among gangs, as their activities and methods are similar, but they just operate on a somewhat grander scale. Bring a gurney! called the lieutenant. Until Judge Justices decree, TDCJs inmate population was essentially governed by brutal trusties known as building tenders, whose methodswhich included beating and sodomizing inmates into terrified submissionwent largely unchecked by prison officials. Murder wasnt his thing. The rules of the Texas Syndicate prohibit the distribution of information regarding fellow members to law enforcement. Ellis I officials caught wind of the deal through a snitch. Scroll through the slideshow for 10 things you need to know about the Barrio Azteca gang. Most gangs will just have their way with female members (referred to as s*xed-in) who want to join. This coded language is often hidden in an otherwise meaningless letter or telephone call. The recruitment techniques of gangs vary from gang to gang, but generally, they have some common recruitment techniques and requirements. By the spring of 1986, prison officials had examined every inmate for telltale tattoos, weeded out identifiable gang members, and ordered that they spend the rest of their sentences in administrative segregation, away from the general population. Either the guard didnt know what was going on, or he did. 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The following day, Chaplain Alexander Taylor, who witnessed Sandovals efforts, wrote the CO III a letter of commendation. Texas Mexican Mafia comes in a distant second with 4,700 members, followed by the Texas Syndicate (3,400 members), Latin Kings (2,100 members) and MS-13 (800 members). Categories Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted. He would stand at the searchers desk like he was running the building, Sandoval said. Arredondo was a Texas Syndicate member. Aventus has hired you to lure the altered wolves to Midnight Den and cull them, then meet him at the Syndicate Enclave to the north-east when you are finished. Prison gangs typically have rules on how to gain admission to the gang. Texas Syndicate. This past May, the bullet-riddled body of Mexican Mafia member Andres Sampyro was found in a San Antonio barrio. That beating often takes the form of "running the gauntlet," in which a recruit is forced to run between two lines of members who are armed withwellwhatever weapons they can get their hands on. Sandoval did not know any warden, ranking officer, or CO at Ellis I who did not have at least one snitch. It generally signifies new membership into a club or group, and while some examples of initiation can be fun and bring people together, others are downright traumatizing. Examples of coded language indicating that someone is to be eliminated include putting an X over the name of the individual or by referring to this targeted individual as X. Additionally, TS members will state that this targeted individual has a green light, or has been designated as a muleta (problem). house for rent waldport oregon; is thanos a villain or anti hero Sandoval is one of more than sixty TDCJ guards who have been indicted by McDonalds Special Prison Prosecution Unit over the past six years for felony offenses. I have the Experience and Reputation to Fight for Your Rights. But he also acknowledged that he had made mistakes; and to me, though not to the jury, he confessed that one of those mistakes was bringing drugs into Ellis I. 8/21/2008) (Tex. Symbols : TS, Tejanos, Texas symbols, long horns, demons, horned dragons, cuernos and syndicatos. texas syndicate initiation . His wife divorced him. But that was if they caught him. Of course, sometimes a hazing ritual goes too far. RELATED:Why 'El Chapo's' beauty queen wife says she is 'afraid for his life'. After that first transaction, Sandoval went back for morea total of three, four, or five times, he told me, though he vividly described six transactions to an investigator hired by his family. During this investigation, authorities seized over 100 kilograms of methamphetamine and multiple firearms attributed to this organization. Not one of them said that Sandoval was a bad officer; many, in fact, went out of their way to laud his abilities. In some of these sects, failure to keep this nasty concoction down is punishable by death. Guards could still smell burning marijuana and still see inmates giggling to themselves. TS members will also assist a fellow member in this pending criminal case. It took more than three years for the Arredondo murder case to come to trial, during which time a number of things happened to Sandoval. So dont try. Guards have been instructed to monitor gang activity but have shown an embarrassing inability to do so. 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