Cops: Gang leaders led quiet public lives

Henry Pierson Curtis | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted August 24, 2006




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OCOEE -- The boss of bosses of Florida's biggest prison gang worked out every day on the back porch of his Lumberjack Lane home, where butterfly wind chimes rang in the breeze.

Morning and afternoon, neighbors say, Michael Lugo curled a barbell loaded with 160 pounds of steel plates and boxed with an Everlast punching bag.

His arrest in May enabled law enforcement to conduct a sweep of the Latin Kings' hierarchy Sunday, arresting 39 of the gang's top members at a Tampa nightclub.

"Oh, my word. You never know who your neighbors are," a resident said Wednesday upon learning that Lugo is head of the Latin Kings in Florida. "I thought he was a professional boxer."

Lugo's nearly anonymous existence did not surprise investigators asked about it after this week's massive strike against the gang's leadership. On Sunday, all 39 known officers of the Latin Kings in Florida were arrested while they were meeting to discuss who would take over while Lugo was behind bars, investigators said.

Most of the leaders led quiet public lives with day jobs that had nothing to do with the violence and heroin dealing associated with the gang, investigators said. Jorge "King Buffy" Villacis of Deltona, for instance, worked for Volusia County as a Votran bus driver.

"Older gang members realize that attracting attention to themselves is going to do nothing but attract law enforcement," said Sgt. Ken Parker of the Orange County sheriff's Gang Unit. "They get smarter as they get older."

Founded in the 1940s in Chicago, the Latin Kings are one of the oldest and best-disciplined criminal street gangs in the nation, the FBI says. It has 232 identified members in Orange County, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Lugo, 28, moved to Ocoee with his wife, Angela, after his release from prison in 2003. He had served seven years for armed burglaries in Clay County, according to prison records.

Authorities only learned of his gang ties when Lugo went to prison, where the Latin Kings have more members than any other gang in Florida. Prison records show he was known as "King Dragon," a title of esteem. Latin Kings gang members were first detected in the state prison system in the early 1980s. Their numbers have doubled in the past 10 years.

"As of yesterday, we estimate there are 592 Latin King members in the system," prison spokeswoman JoEllyn Rackleff said. "Some of them don't even know we know who they are."

In April, Lugo became Inca of Florida, the Kings' top leader, after serving as statewide enforcer -- a regional leader and head of the gang's training camp, law-enforcement officials said Sunday.

Lugo had been in custody since late May for beating and stomping a lesser "king" unconscious in Tampa.

His arrest left a vacuum in the organization, police said, and that led to the gang's meeting of the "tribes" Sunday to determine future leadership.

Residents on Lumberjack Lane remembered Lugo's arrest because a police SUV slid to a halt in Lugo's backyard, where he had built a multicolor Little Tykes playset. Officers surrounded the house with drawn guns and led Lugo away in handcuffs. Searches of the rented 1,800-square-foot house and Lugo's cars produced seven firearms, authorities said.

Lugo remains in the Hillsborough County Jail on several felony charges, including conspiracy to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity.

Henry Pierson Curtis can be reached at hcurtis@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5257.



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