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NEW:Trial focuses on history, organization of Mexican Mafia
Web Posted: 04/05/2005 01:20 PM CDT
Guillermo Contreras
Express-News Staff Writer

The trial against four alleged members of the Texas Mexican Mafia is turning out to be as much against the gang as it is against the individuals.

In testimony today, San Antonio police officer Valentin Lopez, who said he dedicates much of his professional life to investigating the gang, testified that the Texas Mexican Mafia is still run by Heriberto "Herbie" Huerta, who is serving three life terms in a federal prison in Colorado.

Huerta was one of the founders and was sent to prison after a trial in the early 1990s that targeted him and other gang figures.

Lopez testified that he went to high school with Huerta in San Antonio before Huerta enveloped himself in crime and went to state prison.

Lopez said he came upon information that makes law enforcement believe Huerta, as president, still runs the show.

"Herb Huerta las year had $8,000 in his bank," Lopez said, referring to Huerta's prison account. "He claims it's for lawyers and appeals and that kind of stuff."

"He still runs the Texas Mexican Mafia."

The money, Lopez said, comes from the gang's collection of a 10-percent street tax imposed on drug dealers who peddle on gang turf. Its members collect as much as $23,000 to $27,000 a week, Lopez estimated.

The four defendants on trial -- Jimmy "Panson" Zavala, Johnny "Gira" Garcia-Esparza, Juan Victor "Smiley" Valles and Sammy "Spiderman" Garcia -- face federal charges related to drug-trafficking conspiracy, money laundering and using firearms to further drug crimes.

While seemingly irrelevant to the four defendants, prosecutors contend the gang's origins and structure are essential for jurors to understand that the gang operates as an organization, using violence and murder to further its causes.

The Texas Mexican Mafia -- while not officially linked to the larger California-based prison gang called the Mexican Mafia -- has a partial connection.

According to Lopez, while serving time in Lompoc, Calif., Huerta obtained permission to form a chapter of the gang in Texas from the heads of the Mexican Mafia.

The gang sprouted in 1984 or 1985 in Texas as a rag-tag coalition of prisoners aimed at protecting themselves from enemies, primarily the Texas Syndicate gang.

In his 1994 murder conspiracy and racketeering trial, Huerta said he was the spiritual leader of the Mexikanemi Science Temple of Aztlan, a group that worships a pre-Hispanic creed.

The goal, Huerta said, wasn't a gang or violence, but to "build character, so that (members) may learn to love instead of hate."

One goal was to create a network of legitimate businesses.

Not so, law officers say.

They point to a the group's own constitution a set of by-laws that calls for a strict heirarchy, with a president and vice president, followed by ranks along a paramilitary line - generals, captains, lieutenants, sergeants and soldiers.

It describes the group in more nefarious terms.

"Being a criminal organization, we work in any criminal aspect or interest for the benefit and advancement of Mexikanemi," the constitution, which surfaced in Huerta's trial and is being used in the current trial, says. "We shall deal in drugs, contract killings, prostitution, large scale robbery, gambling, weapons and everything imaginable."

The constitution also called for members to obey rules. The No. 1 rule -- don't be "a snitch."

Cooperating with law enforcement results in severe punishment.

"There is only one (punishment)," Lopez testified. "Death."

Even if the advancement of Mexican people was the original goal, law officers say, the message is now far different, given the massive amounts of money churned through the gang's illegal efforts.

"It was supposed to help the organization, but because of so much money, that has gotten lost," Lopez testified.

Testimony in the three to four week trial continues this afternoon with at least one gang turncoat taking the stand. If convicted, the four defendants face up to life in prison.