Renegade gang "peacemaker" and 24 MS-13 gangbangers arrested in LosAngeles Options

Feds arrest head of anti-gang group in LA

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LOS ANGELES (AP) -- A man who said he left a ruthless street gang in
Central America and later won praise for his anti-gang work in Los
Angeles was arrested Wednesday by authorities who allege he conspired
to kill a rival even as he spoke out against gang life.

Alex Sanchez, 37, who heads the local office of the nonprofit Homies
Unidos anti-gang group, was taken into custody at his Bellflower home
on federal racketeering charges, authorities said.
The indictment names 24 leaders, members and associates of MS-13, part
of the Mara Salvatrucha gang affiliated with the Mexican Mafia prison
gang.

It alleges crimes that include seven murders, eight conspiracies to
commit murder, and gun and narcotics offenses since 1995. Sixteen of
those named were already in custody. Four others, including Sanchez,
were arrested Wednesday.

The alleged crimes by Sanchez occurred after he returned from El
Salvador in 1996 and publicly decried gang life.

The indictment said he went by the nickname Rebelde, or rebel, and was
a shot-caller for the Normandie contingent of MS-13. He and three
others are accused in the indictment of conspiring to murder a man
identified by authorities as Walter Lacinos "for the purpose of
maintaining and increasing their position in MS-13."
In May 2006, Lacinos was killed in El Salvador.

No other details were provided in the indictment. Chief Assistant U.S.
Attorney George Cardona declined to provide any specifics beyond the
court filing.

Shot-callers manage the narcotics operations in certain gang
territories, collect extortion payments and resolve disputes, the
indictment states.

Mara Salvatrucha was formed in Los Angeles in the mid-1980s by
immigrants fleeing the El Salvador civil war. The gang spread as
members were deported to their home country and is now a major
international criminal enterprise known for callous killings carried
out by its members, many of whom are heavily tattooed with shaved
heads.
Five others named in the indictment, not including Sanchez, conspired
to murder a veteran gang detective with the Los Angeles Police
Department, authorities said.

Known as an anti-gang worker, Sanchez has testified as an expert
witness in criminal cases, lobbied for better intervention and
prevention programs, spoken to youths about the depressing
consequences of gang life and been widely quoted in the media,
including by The Associated Press.

Luis Enrique Guzman, a community organizer at the Los Angeles Homies
Unidos office, said the group would have no immediate comment.

Luis Romero, director of the Homies Unidos office in El Salvador, said
the organization did not accept the allegations against Sanchez.

"We know that Homies Unidos U.S.A. is doing great work in the
reinsertion and rehabilitation of young people," Romero said.

He said he had no details on the charges.

Asked what he thought prompted the allegations, he said, "these are
the famous smoke screens, things that they use, things that they have
not been able to solve and they take action without previously
investigating."
Sanchez arrived in Los Angeles at age 7 from El Salvador and joined
Mara Salvatrucha when he was 14. He was jailed three times for minor
offenses and deported to El Salvador in 1994.

He told the AP in a March interview that in his home country he had to
live on the streets, fleeing death squads and gangs who threatened to
kill him because they believed him a rival.

He returned illegally to Los Angeles in 1995. Authorities tried to
deport him a second time, but he was granted political asylum after
saying police picked him up because he had testified against officers
in the Rampart police corruption scandal.

Several people spoke in his defense, including Tom Hayden, a former
student radical and state senator.
In July 2002, Sanchez received political asylum after officials
determined his life would be in danger if he returned to El Salvador.

It was the latest instance in which an anti-gang advocate has been
arrested. In January, Marlo "Bow Wow" Jones was arrested in the
robbing and beating of a rapper with the musical group Bone Thugs-N-
Harmony in his Universal City hotel room. At the time, Jones was
working as a gang intervention worker.

Last year, Hector "Big Weasel" Marroquin, a former gang member in
suburban Los Angeles who founded an anti-violence group, was sentenced
to eight years in prison for selling assault weapons.
Civil rights lawyer and gang expert Connie Rice said anti-gang workers
sometimes struggle to completely leave behind gang affiliations.

"The best ones are the ones who have completely gotten out of the
life, but kept the relationships and still are respected," she said.
"But they are the exception and not the rule. Most of these guys are
go-betweens, some act as buffers and some are still in the gang."

Rice said she had wondered about Sanchez because he had been absent
from community meetings aimed at reducing MS-13 violence.

"The thing that makes it really complicated is that Alex did really
good work," she said. "He helped a lot of kids, put a lot of kids in
school."

Homies Unidos was founded in 1996 in El Salvador. Sanchez helped
establish the Los Angeles office the following year.

The office has helped remove tattoos from more than 240 gang members.

FBI officials said everyone named on the indictment could face up to
25 years to life in prison, while those charged with murder could face
the death penalty. No one else from Homies Unidos was named in the
indictment.