Order From Prison: Stop The Drive-Bys -- Penitentiary Syndicate Tells Latino Gangs To Settle Their Feuds Face To Face - Or Else

LOS ANGELES - In a dramatic show of muscle that has brought an uneasy calm to some of Los Angeles' most violent barrios, the Mexican Mafia prison gang has ordered hundreds of Latino street gangs to put a halt to drive-by shootings - or else be killed by the syndicate behind bars.

The edict was delivered over recent months at a series of tightly guarded meetings, including a summit on Sept. 17 that drew more than 1,000 gang members. Under the new rule, gangs are still allowed to attack rivals with whom they have a personal beef, but have been instructed to do it face to face, taking care not to harm innocent bystanders.

"It was, like, this is for `la raza,' the Mexican people," said a gang member who attended the meeting. "If you have to take care of business, they were saying, at least do it with respect, do it with honor and dignity."

By using terror to impose some order on rivalries that were spiraling out of control, the Mexican Mafia has been credited with decelerating one of the bloodiest cycles in the long history of Mexican-American gangs. But in doing so, concerns have been raised about the influence of the clandestine organization.

POLICE ARE SKEPTICAL

"I'm all for peace, but what we're really looking at is the beginning of organized crime," said Lt. Sergio Robleto, commander of the Los Angeles Police Department's South Bureau homicide detail. "I just don't believe that a pact between people who are rapists, murderers and robbers should be hailed with accolades of peace."

In a confidential Los Angeles Police Department memo, detectives contend the Mexican Mafia - known simply as "La EME," Spanish for the letter "M" - is seeking to organize the gangs to boost its narcotics trade.

"Due to the drive-by shootings, the street gangs have caused too much attention and the EME wants less publicity," states the document, prepared shortly after a July meeting drew an estimated 300 gang members representing two dozen barrios.

Although it is impossible to measure precisely what role the prison gang has played in slowing the pace of the bloodshed, Latino gang killings are down 15 percent this year in communities patrolled by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

The Los Angeles Police Department's turbulent Hollenbeck Division, which covers the largely Latino East Los Angeles neighborhoods of Boyle Heights and El Sereno, averaged one gang killing a week last year; there has been only one in the past two months.

"It's none of my business why it happened, but I think it's beautiful that the killing has stopped," said anti-gang activist Art Pulido, a resident of a Los Angeles neighborhood where there have been 13 gang slayings so far this year - compared with 25 in the same period last year.

"Regardless of how the message is getting out . . . I think it's something positive," added Brother Modesto Leon, director of a school for troubled youths.

The prison gang's push to unify Latino gangs, according to correctional officials and law-enforcement authorities, is rooted in a complex tangle of racial politics, economic muscle and internal power struggles.

In many ways, the "no drive-by" rule is a tacit response to the ballyhooed truce last year between some African-American gangs, whose celebrity status was clearly resented by their Latino counterparts. To many Latino gang members, the Bloods and Crips are latecomers to the gang scene, and the publicity surrounding their now-fractured peace accord grated against the quiet, defiant image of the barrio warrior.

Friction between African-American and Latino inmates has also been mounting behind bars. In recent years, as the number of Latinos has surpassed the number of African Americans being housed in Los Angeles County jail facilities, brawls have become almost a weekly occurrence, often leaving dozens injured. Officials believe the prison gang's order is designed, in part, to strengthen those racial alliances on the outside.

"People don't see it, but there's a war going on right now," said Lt. Leo Duarte, who is in charge of monitoring gang activity at the state prison in Chino. "It's starting to filter out to the streets."

Signs of the prison gang's play for power first surfaced in early 1992, officials say, At one gathering last August, led by a reputed Mexican Mafia leader who is now facing federal weapons charges, 500 youths put down their weapons to sign a peace treaty that warned against drive-by shootings.

TREATED AS CHILD MOLESTER

Anyone who breaks the rule, the handwritten document explained, would be treated "as a child molester, a rat, a rapist, which all mean a coward."

Since then, according to the confidential Los Angeles Police Department memo, meetings have been held throughout Southern California. Already jail and prison officials have reported several stabbings, none fatal, directed against gang members who either committed drive-by shootings or refused to align themselves with the gang.

Most authorities believe it all boils down to drugs.

Inside the penal system, the Mexican Mafia controls narcotics smuggling, gambling, prostitution and extortion. But on the streets, where it has long been tied to drug distribution, officials say the organization has never been able to flex the kind of economic muscle it would like.

With an estimated 60,000 Latino gang members in more than 450 gangs just in Los Angeles County, authorities say, an agreement to work together for financial gain would be the underworld's version of the ultimate free-trade accord.