LOS ANGELES _ Federal authorities Wednesday unveiled a sweeping investigation into the Mexican Mafia and the control the criminal organization wields inside Los Angeles County jails, arresting dozens of the groups' members and associates for a litany of crimes.
Hundreds of local police and federal agents carried out coordinated morning raids, taking into custody 32 people who are charged in two federal racketeering indictments, according to the U.S. attorney's office. About three dozen others charged in the cases are currently serving time in state prison or county jails, while authorities continue to search for the rest. In all, 83 people were named in the two cases.
Most of those named face charges related to the Mexican Mafia's iron-fisted control of criminal activity inside Los Angeles County's network of jails that house about 15,000 inmates either awaiting trial or serving sentences.
A 136-page indictment details how members of the Mexican Mafia and associates both inside and out of the jails carried out a brisk drug trade, assaulted gang members who fell out of line with the organization's strict code of allegiance and maintained a steady flow of cash through an intricate system of taxes and fines.
The indictment follows a legal strategy prosecutors have used for years in their efforts to dismantle gangs, accusing members and associates of belonging to a criminal enterprise and violating racketeering laws. The indictment focuses on crimes beginning in 2012, when prosecutors say Mexican Mafia member Jose Landa-Rodriguez and two now-dead members of the prison gang used a host of trusted associates to make the county jails their personal kingdoms.
"These Mexican Mafia members and associates, working together to control criminal activity within LACJ, have become their own entity or enterprise and effectively function as an illegal government within LACJ custody facilities," prosecutors wrote in the indictment.
Landa-Rodriquez, 55, orchestrated a host of criminal activities, according to the indictment. He is accused of ordering murders as well as several assaults and the kidnapping and planned murder of the relative of a gang member who had defied him.
A second Mexican Mafia member, Luis Vega, 33, is accused of ordering a murder and directing assaults against those who showed disrespect or failed to follow Mexican Mafia rules.
