Mexican Mafia members arrested in Hondo

By Guillermo Contreras
gcontreras@express-news.net
Published 06:25 p.m., Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Authorities on Tuesday took a swing at the Texas Mexican Mafia's operations in the outskirts of San Antonio, arresting several of its members on drug or firearm charges.

Nine Hondo-based members and associates of the group were arrested in a joint operation, announced U.S. Attorney John E. Murphy, FBI Special Agent in Charge Cory B. Nelson and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw.

The San Antonio-based gang formed in Texas prisons in the early 1990s, but has been weakened with at least four federal prosecutions that squeezed some of its street operations to surrounding communities.

Those arrested include: Paul Anthony Sanchez, 30, of Hondo; Eduardo Garcia, 40, of Poteet; Jason Ryan Gonzales, 30, of Hondo; Christopher Ybarra, 29, of Hondo; Jesus P. Sanchez, 30, of San Antonio; Adrian Lemus, 31, of Hondo; John Jay Navarro, 23, of Pearsall and Andrew Rodriguez, 29, of Hondo.

Authorities are still looking for Joseph Andrew Correa, 37, of Hondo.

A federal indictment, returned on July 20 and unsealed Tuesday, charges all of the defendants, with the exception of Rodriguez, with conspiracy to interfere with commerce by threats and/or violence. Since Oct. 1, they conspired to extort money from methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana traffickers operating in Hondo, Poteet and Pearsall through the collection of a 10 percent drug tax, also known as “the dime,â€