FBI: Barrio Azteca gang inmates had cell phones
By Daniel Borunda \ El Paso Times
Posted: 03/24/2011 12:00:00 AM MDT


Barrio Azteca gang leaders in prison issued orders to street soldiers via smuggled cell phones, an FBI agent said on Wednes day in U.S. District Court.

Special Agent Samantha Mikeska said contraband cell phones were among four phones tapped by FBI agents last year as part of a racketeering investigation.

Mikeska testified during a detention hearing for an alleged gang soldier, Albert "Igor" Mendoza, one of 35 people recently indicted in a racketeering case against the gang. Mendoza had been a fugitive since a March 9 crackdown until being captured last week in a West Side hotel room.

FBI agents and El Paso police tracked Mendoza to the Howard Johnson Inn on Executive Center, but he refused to exit his room, which was locked with a deadbolt, Mikeska said.

"We had to utilize a (battering) ram to break down the door and arrest Mr. Mendoza," Mi keska said.

Mendoza, 29, had previously been arrested in December, when he was allegedly found with a handgun during a police traffic stop.

Mendoza faces racketeering, drug and money laundering conspiracy charges. Magistrate Judge David Guaderrama decided that Mendoza should remain in jail pending trial.

The Barrio Azteca, which has a military-style hierarchy, was formed in prison by El Pasoans and is allied with the Juárez drug cartel.

Mikeska said Mendoza's name came up 74 times in calls intercepted by the FBI between June and mid-November. Another agent had previously said the bureau intercepted more than 1,500
Advertisement
calls during its investigation.

When questioned by Mendoza's law yer, Mike Torres, Mikeska revealed to whom the tapped phones belonged.

One of the phones belonged to gang capo Carlos "Shotgun" Perea, who is serving a life sentence after being convicted in the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO, case in 2008.

Perea had the cell phone while at the high-security federal prison in Pollock, La. Perea has since been transferred to a prison in Colorado.

Reputed gang lieutenant Hector Galindo, alias "Silent," had a cell phone at the Coffield state prison in East Texas.

The FBI also tapped two phones used by Manuel "Manolin" Lopez, who is accused of being a gang sergeant in the "free world" outside of prison in El Paso.

In one intercepted call, Galindo told another gangster to send a person known only as "Stranger" to Cielo Vista, Mi keska said.

"Cielo Vista," according to investigators, did not mean the El Paso mall. "Cielo Vista" is gang code referring to the heavens, meaning that person should be killed, Mikeska said. The identity of "Stranger" has not been determined.

Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102.

http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_1768 ... ost_viewed