A terminally ill prisoner didn’t want his gang to die with him. So he wrote
LA TimesBraulio Castellanos died last week of stomach cancer. I was already 27 years old and I didn’t play gang-banging or none of like that.” Every time Castellanos passed Vasquez and his friends on the way to the bar, “they yelled stuff at me,” he said. Describing him as “the silent partner,” a federal agent testified at a racketeering trial that Braulio Castellanos’ name was rarely mentioned on wiretaps, but “we knew he was there.” Prosecutors brought indictments against the gang that sent dozens of its members to prison for murder, drug dealing and extortion, although the Castellanos brothers themselves were never charged in federal court. Those that claimed huge territory didn’t offer me a thing.” According to Castellanos, the Mexican Mafia has reached beyond the Southern California barrios where most of its members grew up. In the case of Danny “Popeye” Roman, a dominant figure in the Mexican Mafia who was stabbed to death in 2020, “a substantial amount of brothers voted against it,” Castellanos wrote.
History of this topic
The Mexican Mafia’s long reach and longer memory
LA Times
The Mexican Mafia Tapes: How an informant nearly brokered a cartel alliance
LA Times
The Mexican Mafia Tapes: Secret recordings reveal greed, betrayal — and a deal with the feds
LA Times
‘Like the Godfather’: Mafia informant’s brother killed years after dramatic testimony, arrest made
LA Times
13 charged in Mexican Mafia collection racket in L.A. County jails
LA Times
The Mexican Mafia, a hit list, a swallowed note: Lawyer charged in murder plot
LA Times
Enforcer for slain Mexican Mafia member stabbed to death in L.A. County jail
LA Times
A ‘calculated business decision’: Mexican Mafia member convicted of murder in Paramount
LA Times
He dodged a Mexican Mafia death sentence for 26 years. Then his luck ran out
LA Times
‘Big Mike’ Lerma, reputed Mexican Mafia member, charged with ordering murder at L.A. prison
LA Times
Danny Roman, Mexican Mafia member and South L.A. gang chieftain, is stabbed to death in Corcoran
LA Times
After unusual trial, Mexican Mafia member sentenced to life in prison
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