Multi-agency operation arrests 33 violent gang members in border town of Uvalde

“Gang violence has no place here in Texas, and we will bring the full force of justice to bear on these notorious criminals,” Gov. Greg Abbott said as he directed the Texas Department of Public Safety to allocate resources there to root out organized crime by September 2022.

Nearly two years ago, a multi-agency operation, made possible by additional state funding and DPS criminal investigative oversight, began targeting a vast organized crime network operating along the Texas-Mexico border. The investigation focused on the sale and distribution of narcotics, weapons, extortion, aggravated assaults, and organized criminal activities by multiple gangs associated with transnational criminal organizations, including Mexican cartels.

DPS deployed special agents to address gang activity in the Uvalde area, with priority given to gangs associated with Tango and the Latin King gang, which DPS classifies as Tier 1 and Tier 2 gangs, respectively.

After an extensive investigation, 33 gang members were arrested, including the Latin Kings, West Texas Tango, Tango Blast, Tango Orejon, Tango Aguilon, Texas Syndicate, Paisa, Texas Mexican Mafia, Maniac Latin Disciples and San Antonio Walked Down Gang, according to a statement from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.

The 38th Judicial District has filed 68 state charges related to drug trafficking and engaging in organized criminal activity. The U.S. Western District, Del Rio Division, has filed 17 federal charges related to racketeering and conspiracy.

Texas DPS investigators have identified gang activity as “a growing and serious problem in the Uvalde area.”

They were joined in the investigation by investigators from the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office, Uvalde Police Department and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigations. The Border Prosecution Unit of the 38th District Attorney and the U.S. Attorney’s Office are prosecuting the case.

The investigation focused on the Uvalde area nearly a decade after a joint operation in 2015 broke up major gang operations there, resulting in the disbandment of the Latin Kings, the sheriff’s office said. Since then, gang activity has increased, with the “most recent gang activity involving some of the children of those former incarcerated gang members.”

The investigation was a collaborative effort “to identify and combat violent crime along the southern border of the United States,” the sheriff said.

“We will not tolerate this criminal activity in our community,” said District Attorney Christina Mitchell. “We will expose anyone who participates, accomplices, or allows this cancer to enter our city.”

She also said she expected the investigation to lead to more charges and arrests.

The charges and arrests came after 33 Latin King members and associates were convicted on federal racketeering charges in October 2020.

Formally known as the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, the Latin King gang has tens of thousands of members operating in chapters across several states, law enforcement officials told The Center Square. In 2020, 33 members of the Latin King’s Central Region of Texas chapters in Austin, San Antonio and Uvalde were sentenced to 45 to 288 months in federal prison. They were convicted for their roles in operating a criminal enterprise in Central Texas for a decade starting in 2005, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Western District of Texas.

Four leaders received the longest prison sentences, ranging from nearly 16 to 22 years. They included Texas-Central chapter leader “Inca” Pete Perez in Austin; San Antonio chapter leader “Inca” Joe Pierce (“Dro”); Uvalde chapter leader “Incas” James Marty Long (“Whiteboy”); and Jacob Mariscal (“Righteous”).

They were convicted and sentenced for conspiracy “to commit unlawful acts, including attempted murder, assault with a dangerous weapon, extortion, robbery, various firearms offenses, and drug distribution involving marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamine.”

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“Violent gangs like the Latin Kings are comprised of members who wake up every day with the intent to commit violence, to deal drugs, to break our laws, and to threaten our social fabric. Simply put, they should not be allowed to run unchecked through our streets,” U.S. Attorney Gregg Sofer said at the time.

Violent acts committed by the gang members, according to court documents, included: attacking a rival gang member by “beating his head, face and body with rocks, bats and glass bottles”; conspiring to shoot a rival gang member and providing the weapon to do so, in retaliation for the stabbing of a Latin King member; driving a vehicle into rival gang members; using women to lure rival gang members to a residence where “they were stabbed, punched, kicked and beaten with a baseball bat”; among other violent acts, including shootings, stabbings and assaults.