Reward increased for man with 96 aliases

‘Rooster' is wanted in drug cases, murder.

By Dane Schiller
dane.schiller@chron.com
Published 10:55 p.m., Monday, October 3, 2011

With an astounding 96 aliases, a Texas Syndicate gangster is on the run from authorities who claim he is a murderer and a drug trafficker with a menacing record worthy of his spot in the state's top 10 most wanted fugitives.

The Texas Department of Public Safety announced Monday that it has upped a reward to $12,500 for information leading to the capture of Ernesto Alonso Garcia Gomez, a native of Mexico who wove his way through life using myriad aliases since he came to the United States in 1997 and got a green card.

Though having so many aliases is possible, it is unusual, said Tom Vinger, a spokesman for DPS.

In fact, it is almost off the charts: The state's criminal history database allows only up to 99 aliases.

Garcia has used at least 96 that are variations of his real name, as well as at least one other nickname, Gallito, Spanish for little rooster, according to DPS.

Veteran law-enforcement officers seem surprised, but didn't scoff at the notion a criminal could have used so many names to hide.

“There are so many ways someone can get an alias,â€