Travis McDonald, the prison prosecutor for Texas stated, Its hard to try a case against a guard in Huntsville. We spoke to hundreds of prison gang members - here's what they said Bloody Sunday | Nicholas II The Texas Syndicate or Syndicato Tejano was the first prison gang to heavily impact the prison system in Texas. Just a day later, at the Ramsey II Unit on September 9, 1985 a disturbance occurred which consisted of two inmates in the process of a fight. It had huge implications, not just for people in Northern Ireland but also for Anglo-Irish affairs, which were reaching one of the most difficult points. Home - Julian Samora Research Institute - Michigan State University (Gang Intelligence 101), In April 2002, members of the Texas Syndicate murder a Tango Blast member at the J.B. Connally state prison. They have been reported in the Federal Correctional Institute at Oakdale, Louisiana, and in San Quentin, California, with frequency. Italy Albanian emigrants started arriving at Italian ports in 1991. This Albanian link seems to confirm that the Sacra Corona Unita and the Albanian Mafia are "partners" in Puglia/Italy and delegate several criminal activities". Nine things to know about the Texas Syndicate gang In October 2004, the FBI arrested 22 men who worked for it. 8,126 Hispanic members operate across Texas, including specific reportings in the Coffield Unit, about 60 miles southwest of Tyler, and at the Allred prison unit outside of Wichita Falls. Their options were either possibly losing their job, or continue assisting the inmates and they would remain silent. Unbeknownst to Sandoval, he was entering as a prison guard during a transitional period from 1979-1986 for the TDC dubbed a Broken System, as many court cases had upended the autonomous power of the prison administration during this period. The first time, on January 30th, 1972, it was a real event: a massacre in Derry of 13 unarmed civilians by the first . Bloody Sunday - SNCC Digital Gateway SNCC Digital Gateway As a street gang, heavy activity has been reported in Austin, Texas, Corpus Christi, Texas, the Rio Grande Valley and the Dallas Fort Worth area. Fields such as criminal justice, sociology, and criminology have provided vast research into prison gangs, and more specifically Mexican American prison gangs. TDC guard indicted in 1986 slaying of inmate. Houston Chronicle. Sandovals whole experience within Texas prisons was encased within these various historical processes. His experiences, however, exposed other problems for Mexican Americans. Bloody Sunday: Legacy of a fateful day in Derry lives on - independent Robert Draper, a journalist for the Texas Monthly provided an apt description of this homicide scene: Help me, Boss! Turning around, Sandoval saw a Hispanic inmate [Cesario Gonzales] standing behind a hallway crash-gate, clinging to the bars with both hands. Le Chiffre is the main villain of the 2006 James Bond film, Casino Royale , portrayed by Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen . We found that "Eulinda" was a cover-up for some other business, said high criminal counselor from Dsseldorf Rainer Bruckert. Formed in the California prison system in the 1970s by incarcerated Tejanos, the Texas Syndicate sought protection against Californios. "What we have here might be considered a sixth crime family," after the five Mafia organizations Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Lucchese said Fred Snelling, head of the FBI's criminal division in New York. In Del Rio, a federal judge sentenced 29 Uvalde/Hondo-area Texas Syndicate (TS) members over the past two weeks to federal prison, including four defendants to life imprisonment, for various racketeering and drug trafficking offenses committed in Uvalde, San Antonio and the surrounding areas announced United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin, The Polish mob has told its associates that the Albanians are like the early Sicilian Mafia clannish, secretive, hypersensitive to any kind of insult, and too quick to use violence for the sake of vengeance. LATINO PRISON GANGS: Texas Syndicate - Blogger Members of other ethnic groups can be accepted only to execute certain one time or secondary jobs. 3. Ortiz was the cellmate of John A. Hernandez, a high-ranking member of the Texas Syndicate. (TDCJ Security Threat Group Archives), In mid 2002, the Texas Syndicate declares war on the Tango Blast prison gang. These incidents were also discussed with the journalist Robert Draper. In the early 1960s, Anthony Salerno became one of the most powerful capos in the family. Between 1961 and 1964, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had led a voting registration campaign in Selma, the seat of Dallas County, Alabama, a small town with a record of consistent resistance to black voting. With the lack of social mobility due to economic constraints, Mexican Americans were forced into what limited opportunities were afforded to them. A lawsuit against the Texas prison system and Sandoval was underway by Arredondos family. Many of these Mexican American inmates who became prison gang members had to submit to a serious requirement for membership and could only leave the gang through their death. He further wrote, I am not the only one who worked there that knows that TDCJ is linked to the gangs and their illegal activities. In this March 10, 1965, file photo, demonstrators, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., stream over an Alabama River bridge at the city limits of Selma, Ala., during a voter rights march. He did not complete his college education although he went farther than many Mexican Americans from this region. Law enforcement authorities estimate that different Albanian mafia families may smuggle as much as 440 pounds of heroin a year into Scandinavia at any given time. 8k-usnle Texas Syndicate (Gang Intelligence 101), In 1980, the Texas Syndicate gain full control of the prison systems drug trade after the practice of using building tenders to assist guards is ruled out by a Civil court. This was the blood in and blood out membership oath which stipulated that membership was predicated on members either assaulting or murdering someone which was tasked by the prison gang to get in. Some of these punishments for example were longer durations behind bars, beatings enacted by the building tenders, or being sent to solitary confinement. Two guards, Joel Lambright Jr. and Alex Torres, were also charged in 1994 with murder after Sandoval was charged and convicted (Smith, 1994). He became the first guard to be charged with homicide. His brief story represented the limited social and economic opportunities that impacted many Tejanos; the continuance of a larger, repeated, and unceasing story in Texas. (Gang Intelligence 101), In 1986, Texas Syndicate member Rogelio Hernandez murders Officer Jose Herrera during an attempted escape from the Webb County Jail. Civil Right's 'Bloody Sunday' - National Geographic Society State identity also occurred as a form of othering by the California prison gangs which did not extend membership to non-Californios. In the case of Luis Sandoval, while he was not a member, the Texas Syndicate preferred that Garcia deal directly with Sandoval, a fellow Hispanic. Sandovals acceptance and willingness to acquiesce was alleged in part, because as one inmate stated Sandoval always seemed to be hurting for money (Draper, 1991). A week later, a well-known event called Bloody Sunday occurred on September 8, 1985. Prosecutors announced they were pursuing criminal charges against two British soldiers who took part in the Bloody Sunday. He married Veronica on Saturday June 22, 1985. (Draper, 1991) Since the removal of the building tender system many of the old guard force resigned and left many green guards to come in and figure out the new and changing Texas prison system. Texas Syndicate Gang Members Busted - Again. The Gonzales homicide was merely one representative example of the larger problem of violence stemming from the war between the Texas Syndicate and the Texas Mexican Mafia that raged inside the walls of the prison units. Their exit does not exist and the prison gang has now also gained a member that will remain in their proximity for the duration of their sentence, equivalent to their life. Other factors that were possible motivators were being part of an economically disadvantaged social group, the reality of low wage work as a prison guard, or merely feeling trapped because of the fear of reprisal by prison gang members. These acts also garner the most attention as violence is habitually presented by the media, and more commonly consumed by the public. Bloody Sunday, The 1972 Massacre That Rocked Northern Ireland In South Texas, Sandoval primarily interacted with Mexican American friends from the barrios and the housing projects of Kingsville, TX. The expiration of membership or getting out only occurred upon the members death. Sandoval also highlighted the racial issues that Mexican American prison staff faced. Bloody Sunday commemorates when, in 1965, 600 people began a march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, demanding an end to discrimination in voter registration. Murder and Prison Gangs: A Mexican American Experience Inside a Texas This influenced who the prison gang incorporated into their monetary endeavors. U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday Lyrics | Genius Lyrics This process was an exploitative tactic that many prisoners faced and continue to face in prisons. Arredondo had been ineffective for the prison gang, and failed them on several occasions. Texas Syndicate by Michael Nelson - Prezi DANE SCHILLER , HOUSTON CHRONICLE. (Associated Press), In June 2008, Texas Syndicate member Emanuel Camacho Gomez fatally guns down 27-year-old Rose Anne Martinez in San Antonio, Texas. Thus, in many areas of Italy, the market for cannabis, prostitution, and smuggling is run mainly by Albanians. [1] Sandoval was charged with criminal homicide under state law that provides penalties for persons who aid in a killing but do not actually participate in the act (Buentello, 1987). In On Bloody Sunday, a new collage of eye-witness accounts, Julieann Campbell, a niece of one of the victims, does a remarkable job of taking the reader vividly back to a past that still haunts. We haven't found a single catalogue or brochure for travelling at the agency, computers were not operating, nor has the printer been ever used. Inmates used this perceived racial brotherhood to manipulate Sandoval for the gains of the prison gangs illegal activity by initiating the common process in prisons called downing the duck (Bedard, 2013). The Texas Syndicate was established at Folsom State Prison in California in 1978 in direct response to the other California prison gangs, notably the Aryan Brotherhood and Mexican Mafia, which were attempting to prey on native Texas inmates. Rent $3.99 Buy $12.99 According to The New York Times published on January 2006, "Beginning in the 1990s, the Corporation, led by a man named Alex Rudaj, established ties with established organized crime figures including members of the Gambino crime family , the authorities say. Thirteen people were shot dead and at least 15 others injured when members of the Army's Parachute Regiment opened fire on civil rights demonstrators in the Bogside - a predominantly Catholic part. Sandovals Early Beginnings The Texas Syndicate 's . The complicated history of Whiteness in U.S. history has been explored in the scholarship on Mexican American history but is virtually non-existent in mass incarceration scholarship. Texas Syndicate prison gang remains a force to fear - Chron Links to Calabrias Mafia, the "Ndrangheta", exist in Northern Italy. This study provides exploration of the varying Mexican American experiences within prisons as victimized inmates, as stifled prison guards, and also as prison gangs or security threat groups who employed efforts to demonstrate their own autonomy, regardless of the problematic legal and ethical quandaries through prison gangs. They are said to be present in every big city in Britain as well as many smaller ones including Telford and Lancaster , after having fought off rival criminals in turf wars. (Associated Press), On Austin July 2, 2001, Texas Syndicate members murder female TS associate Jove Rios for conducting business with the Mexikanemi. Saviano notes that the Camorra from Naples can't understand the Russian clans , which aren't based on family ties, and feels greater affinity with the Albanian crime families. Riggs, Robert. Krasniqi Brothers : Bruno Krasniqi and Saimir Krasniqi; leaders of an international crime organization engaged in murder, kidnapping, narcotics trafficking and other illegal activities in Albania and the U.S. Myfit (Mike) Dika : Former drug kingpin of the Balkan Criminal Enterprises; an international criminal organization which spanned from Canada , the United States , to Europe . He crossed into Mexico into Cuidad Juarez and allegedly stayed with an uncle there. The first generation Albanians have a tendency to be more violent than American-born syndicates, claims Hall. Bloody Sunday News and Opinion | Common Dreams Building tenders were also selected from the inmate population pool who were deemed more aggressive and violent to ensure strict control through violence and fear. Drug Trafficking, Murder, Robbery, Allies: Border Brothers, Tri City Bombers, Texas Mafia, Dirty White Boys, Rivals: Mexikanemi, Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia, Aryan Brotherhood, Mandingo Warriors, Black Guerrilla Family, In 1970, The Texas Syndicate is founded by Juan Pajaro Solis-Vela and Francisco Panchito Gonzales in Californias Folsom prison. Danielle S. Willkens "Once we identify a name and the story behind them, we can track. Historians have lagged behind attempts to historicize prison gangs into the larger historical context. (Gang Intelligence 101), In 1995, the Texas Syndicate declares war on a Mexican gang known as Mexicles. Albanian gangsters were also involved in the largest cash robbery in British crime history, the 53 million (about US$92.5 million at the time of the robbery) Securitas heist in 2006. What is 'Bloody Sunday'? How attacks against Black marchers in Selma He had an arranged agreement with them where profits from drug trafficking into the prison were split between himself and the Texas Syndicate. 402K subscribers 2 No views 1 minute ago ESPN's Matt Barrie is back for Week 6's Sunday Bloody Sunday to talk through the interim coaches prowess, Alabama's win over Texas A&M, Tennessee. Location: Texas . Bloody Sunday: what has happened in the 50 years since the killings? Building tenders were inmates who were tasked with monitoring and ultimately controlling the rest of the inmate population. According to Ioannis Michaletos, the family structure is characterized by a strong inner discipline, which is achieved by a means of punishment for every deviation from the internal rules, so that the fear should guarantee an unconditional loyalty to the family, with the provisions of the official laws considered to be secondary, not important and non-binding. Sandovals exposure to this initial shocking experience was predicated on his need for quick employment. They had entered in the territory of Lucchese crime family in Astoria, Queens , New York, and are said to have even beaten up two made men in the Lucchese family. Plaurent "Lenti" Dervisha : On the Interpol's and FBI's most wanted list as being the leading member of a criminal organization based out of Durrs , Albania , who Albanian authorities say is the brother-in-law of Lul Berisha ;a reputed leader of one of the 15 mafia families. First prison gang remains a force to fearThousands of Texas Syndicate members behind bars, but murder, mayhem continue. Texas Syndicate moved into Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ). Winner of the Sundance Film Festival's Audience Award, writer-director Paul Greengrass' "magnetic and impassioned" drama is a "staggering re-creation" of the events of Sunday, January 30th, 1972 when British troops clashed with unarmed protestors in Derry, Northern Ireland. After this incident Sandoval soon realized it was the inmates who ran the prison, not the guards, and surely not the state of Texas. Associations principally began because of his shared ethnic background with many of the inmates, where their ethnic kinship was highlighted and then thusly exploited by the inmates. These members expressed their concern, similar to those leveraged by Sandoval in his 24-page letter, that the state used Sandoval as a Mexican American scapegoat for the corruption and problems occurring in the prison system as they became visible to the public during a tumultuous period following Texas prison reform. (Ortiz v. State, 93 S.W.3d 79 (Tex. Vice squad officers estimate that "Albanians now control more than 75 per cent of the countrys brothels and their operations in Londons Soho alone are worth more than 15 million a year." Believed by MI6 to be Albanian, Le Chiffre is banker to the world's terrorist organizations. (Gang Intelligence 101), In 1997, armed Texas Syndicate members raid an El Paso bar known as La Cumbala and murder 4 people. Ellis I Unit prison guard Patrick Ware described a similar tactic used by inmates related to downing the duck. Ware and numerous other current and former guards testified that gang members commonly try to influence prison officers to smuggle drugs to them. When prison gang violence arose, the state was quick to blame the reforms as the cause of the violence. Sandoval claimed he skipped the court date and hid out for three weeks in California because he feared prison officials. Theyre difficult to infiltrate. Were just now catching up with Albanian organized crime, he says. Sunday. While Italian gangsters may be three or four generations removed from the old country, the Albanians grew up under brutal communist regimes, engaging in protracted blood feuds with rival clans, and subscribing to a strict code of silence that makes the Italian credo of omert seem playful. In the early 1960s Mike Coppola was imprisoned on tax evasion charges and followed in the footsteps of his predecessor Ciro Terranova, being put on the shelf after his release from prison in 1963. Sat Jan 22 2022 - 06:00. His neck had been slashed; his head was all but severed. Furthermore, the ability of inmates to force the prison administrators to hear their grievances was developed from the successes of prison reform. Two Texas Syndicate gang members were sentenced today to a combined 50 years in prison for drug trafficking in Lubbock, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox. We spoke to hundreds of prison gang members - here's what they said But Sandoval, Mexican American prison gangs, and the larger story of the Mexican American experience within the context of prisons illustrate themes of criminalization, hegemony, and self-determination, topics wholeheartedly important to Mexican American history. A long, metal objecta homemade knife, or shankprotruded from his jugular. The pressure to commit murder for prison gangs was necessary for them to gain and continue membership. If an officer fails to cooperate, a gang has non-violent ways of retaliating []. More than 15 marchers were hospitalized for injuries suffered in an event known as " Bloody Sunday ." Sunday Bloody Sunday: The Story behind U2's most political song But the circumstances surrounding the murder also exposed internal issues of the prison system which the trial brought to light. During Sandovals trial, witnesses told a Walker County jury that doors in the Ellis I prison units south end were routinely left unlocked by guards in 1986. International activity Scandinavia "The ethnic Albanian mafia is very powerful and extremely violent," said Kim Kliver, chief investigator for organized crime with the Danish National Police. On the morning of November 21st, an elite assassination unit known as 'The Squad' mounted an operation planned by Michael Collins, Director of Intelligence of the Irish Republican Army (IRA). Bloody Sunday anniversary: Harris walks across Edmund Pettus Bridge in Charles Brown, a TDCJ spokesman said, an 8-inch long flat piece of metal and a boning knife were recovered at the scene, likely the murder weapons (Graczyk, 1985). Testifying for murder defendant and former Ellis I guard Luis Sandoval, a string of prison employees said the doors were left open despite a policy requiring that they be locked at all times (McKay, 1991). Texas Syndicate Albanian mafia The Albanian Mafia or Albanian Organized Crime are the general terms used for criminal organizations based in Albania or composed of ethnic Albanians . Then, through negotiations or in armed showdowns, the Albanians struck out on their own, daring to battle the Lucchese and Gambino families for territory in Queens, the Bronx and Westchester County, prosecutors say." (Gang Intelligence 101), In 2001, Texas Syndicate members murder ex member Hector Camacho in the Rio Grande Valley for his efforts in starting an offshoot TS chapter called Tejano Syndicato Originales (Sierra v. State, No. He was stabbed approximately twenty times in the B-Wing of the Ellis I Unit in Huntsville. In the movie " In With Thieves " A blood diamond deal goes wrong which throws Albanian Mafioso into chaos in the criminal underworld. (Associated Press), In 1994, the Texas Syndicate and the Raza Unida agree that the gangs would share the drug trade in Brownsville by dividing gang territory in the border town in sections. The Texas Syndicate, more than La Eme or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners, such as the "Border Brothers", while La Eme and the NF tend to be more composed of US-born/raised Hispanics. While these prison gangs relied primarily on ethnicity and racial identity for membership, state identity informed their inclusion as well and should be noted. (Gang Intelligence 101), In 2004, The Raza Unida and Texas Syndicate settle on a truce. The favor increased from the lighting of a cigarette to mailing letters for the inmates as they claimed to lack stamps to do so. The Texas Syndicate's golden rule is as simple as it is merciless: Betray us and you're dead.. The downfall of the building tenders was brought on by the success of the legal court case Ruiz v. Estelle. Enver Sekiraqa : Leading person of organized crime in Kosovo, aka the boss of the bosses, who is on the Interpols wanted list for several crimes. Correspondingly, Vasquez, Garcia, and Carrillo who were the earlier victims were all incarcerated for robbery or burglary convictions. Buentello, S. Texas Syndicate: A Review of Its Inception, Growth in Violence and Continued Threat to the TDC. Asian street gangs. Prison officials argued prison gangs grew because the collapse of the building tender system created a power vacuum. The Aztecas murder their TS victim by slamming his head through jail bars. The presdent will be there to mark 58 years since the Bloody Sunday, a violent clash between 600 civil rights marchers and white police officers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965 that served. The Morello-Terranova brothers soon started taking over the growing Little Italy in East Harlem, by using the Black Hand technique of extorting small business and running illegal gambling operations. The Little Italy in lower Manhattan was under the control of Ignazio "Lupo the Wolf" Saietta, before a gang war reputed the two sides decided on joining forcing. Infiltration into these groups is thus very difficult. So, in a single one-way trip, they can carry up to six million D-marks.