Mafia

A criminal defense attorney was charged in a federal indictment unsealed last week with conspiring to murder a member of the Mexican Mafia who had fallen out of favor with the prison-based syndicate.Gabriel Zendejas Chavez was first indicted in 2018, accused of using the confidentiality afforded by his bar license to relay messages between Mexican Mafia members held in far-flung prisons. Witnesses have testified that he helped the organization traffic drugs, collect extortion proceeds and unmask government…

Credit: Magali Guimarães from Pexels Violence spreads in a contagious way like a disease among members of the Italian mafia, a new study shows. Researchers have found committing violent acts with others increases the likelihood that people in these groups will go on to carry out more violent offenses in the future. The analysis of the criminal careers…

When an imprisoned gang member used a contraband cellphone to ask Miguel Maciel Jr. if he wanted to make some money, the 18-year-old jumped at the offer.“Of course,” Maciel told the prisoner, Carlos Guadalupe Reyes, according to WhatsApp messages shown in court. “I’m always interested in money.”The messages made clear, according to prosecutors, that Maciel was signing up for an entry-level position that offered a lot of work for little pay. In one example, his cut for delivering $900 worth of drugs and picking up the…

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The number of homicides in Italy today is one-third of those 20 years ago, yet Italians believe they have increased by 26.6%, with a 17.3% rise in mafia-related murders. Moreover, when exposed to images of mafia violence from newspapers, Italians do not tend to lose trust in the state, as studies in other countries would suggest. Instead, they tend to have more trust in institutions and offer…

In the most important scene of the first season of The Sopranos — arguably the most important scene of television of the last 25 years, if not much longer — Mob boss Tony Soprano stalks and murders Febby Petrulio, a former wiseguy who testified against friends of Tony’s and then went into hiding.  What would have happened, I asked Sopranos creator David Chase recently, if he had pitched the same idea 25 years before that, back when he was a young writer on The Rockford Files, a hit NBC drama starring James Garner…

Gabriel “Sleepy” Huerta has been identified by testifying witnesses and confidential informants as an influential member of the Mexican Mafia, the prison-based organization that controls Latino gangs behind bars and on the streets of Southern California. But in a case brought this month, prosecutors accused Huerta of getting involved in a mundane squabble: A lost gun that led to a beat-down on the streets of his old neighborhood.Already serving 17 years to life for second-degree murder, Huerta, 64, is now charged with…

In November of 2021, Young Thug appeared on Saturday Night Live to promote his second studio album, Punk. Introduced by the actor Rami Malek, the Atlanta rapper appeared sporting a puffy fuchsia fur coat and baby pink pants. He was joined on stage by the rapper Gunna, the pop singer Nate Ruess and the drummer Travis Barker. His two performances that night played up the genre-bending, psychedelic sensibilities that the rapper had long infused into his art.That night, in his performance of Tick Tock, a song that didn’t make…

Not even the fierce wattage of Toni Collette’s talent can light up this hokey crime comedy, a kind of wacky mobster spin on the idea of the unhappy American woman finding herself and learning to love again in a luxury Euro-tourist paradise; Mafia Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, perhaps. It’s directed by Catherine Hardwicke from a story idea by French author and film-maker Amanda Sthers, who gave us Madame – another film into which Collette tried valiantly but unsuccessfully to breathe some life.Here she plays Kristin, an…

PlayStation Plus' monthly free games for November 2023 have been revealed. The three titles will be available to members of PS Plus Essential, Extra, and Deluxe/ Premium plans, starting November 7. PS Plus members can become a gangster and run the streets of New York City in Mafia II: Definitive Edition, take part in explosive battles against classic supervillains in Dragon Ball: The Breakers, and battle through hordes of Xenomorphs in Aliens: Fireteam Elite. These games can be added to your PS4 and PS5 games library…

Michael Torres, a Mexican Mafia member who oversaw gangs in the San Fernando Valley and controlled drug and extortion rackets in the Los Angeles County jails, was stabbed to death in prison Thursday, authorities said.Torres, 59, was attacked around 9 a.m. at California State Prison, Sacramento, where he was serving 133 years to life for attempted murder, conspiracy, weapons offenses and witness tampering. Prison officials identified the assailants as Ray Martinez, 49, and Juan Angel Martinez, 47. The men, who are not…