texas syndicate initiation

One was an officer who muled marijuana and cocaine for a black inmate known as Apple Jack, whose activities were no secret at the unit. In the Kikuyu language, "mungiki" means "united people" or "multitude," and the basic goals of the group include rejection of all things Western and embracing traditional African culture. In your house you can walk around in the dark and not bang your shins because you know every square inch, said a former Ellis I officer. Sandoval, he was a good kid, said the inmate of the guard who had once done him favors. Hey, boss, you got a light? Luis Sandoval pulled out his lighter and, as he had before, lit the cigarette held by Armando Garcia. And perhaps he was vaguely aware that the request, if honored, would be only the first of manythat later he would be asked for cigarettes, chewing gum, packs of sunflower seeds, and more. At certain times, more than five hundred of them might flood the B-wing hallway en route to the gym, the chapel, the woodshop, or the chow hall. When they got there they found Joe Arredondo lying on his back. Sandoval put his hand against the wound, looked up, and saw Crippin and McCool standing there, gaping. The United Blood Nation, who still operate to this day in New York, was a gang started back in the early 1990's to protect members from Puerto Rican and Hispanic gangs, such as the Latin Kings and Netas. On the outside, the operation is run very much like a business, while inside the prison is where activities are ruthless and violent, particularly within the realm of initiation. However, in the world of criminal gangs, where there is concern for nothing more than loyalty, initiation rites take a different and terrifying form. Youre telling us you saw nothing? Youll drain all the blood to his head. Three other officers arrived on the scene. Apple Jack protected his mule, however, and though many knew of the officers extracurriculars, the hammer never fell on him. If you tell him, Put that knife down, hell look up at you and say, I aint through yet. These people are serious. [3] While the gangs maintains its headquarters in California, there are around 1,000 members in prisons and jails throughout Texas, with many others operating on the outside. After release from prison, a TS member is required to contact the high-ranking member in the geographical area where the released member intends to reside. Jurors convicted 38-year-old Raul "Fatboy . West Texas Syndicate Energy is an energy company with practical and futuristic goals, continuing to push environmental-friendly and pioneering technologies in more traditional energy endeavors. The field for their activities, though fertile, was finite, thus making turf wars inevitable. Tri-City Bombers, Latin Kings and Surenos are more active on a street gang level. If you last six months in there, youll make it. He grabbed the stash of marijuana he had recently picked up, ran to the bathroom, and flushed it down his toilet. Here are fifteen of the most troubling and horrifying gang initiation rituals around the world. Prison officials believe that the rivalry between the TS and the Mexican Mafia has produced homicides in Austin, Dallas, Houston, El Paso, and especially San Antonio, where nearly one hundred suspected prison-gang-related murders were committed last year. Although, they do have alliances with some Hispanic gangs. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); The experiences of being involved in Prison Gangs. Relying on American trained experts with global experience, we have created an open minded culture with a never ending drive for innovation. Gangs still terrorize the prisons. The purpose of the enterprise include the following: a) Enriching the members and associates of the enterprise through, among other things, distribution of narcotics, extortion and robbery; b) Preserving and protecting the power, territory and profits of the enterprise through the use of intimidation, violence, threats of violence, assaults and murder; c) Promoting and enhancing the enterprise and its members and associates activities; d) Maintaining a powerful organization that can protect members and provide financial opportunities through criminal activity; e) Keeping victims in fear of the enterprise and in fear of its members and associates through threats of violence and violence. The guards were hired. The strict rules and harsh discipline governing the Texas Syndicate help insure that the organizations members and associates function as a continuing unit despite any changes in membership. Plain and simple, many young people trying to get into this group are instructed to kill a member of a rival gang. Theyre coming in from work, theyre coming out of the tanks to go eat or recreate or go to school or go to the chapel, said Sandoval. Sandoval was one of the officers I wanted to be like, said one correctional officer whom Sandoval helped train. Somehow an inmate by the name of Vicente had gotten past the new boots boys. He had lied to his own investigator, just as inmates and Internal Affairs had lied to the jurors. When Vicente and his friend Armando Garciaalso a pleasant, nonconfrontational fellowbegan to ask Sandoval if he had a light, the guard refused at first, and finally decided, after repeated requests, what the hell. Gang initiation is determined either by a formula system, whereas if the member completes all the requirements (which sometimes include killing another person) and the other basic requirements (such as race, ethnicity etc), they are automatically initiated. It was a pleasure to deal with an inmate man to man, for once. For his trouble, the inmates offered the guard $75. That statistic does not come close to reflecting the actual number of TDCJ employees suspected of involvement in corrupt activities. Meanwhile, white inmates, tired of being robbed and sexually assaulted by the larger population of black inmates, began the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Join The Syndicate Speak with representative Astrid in the Syndicate Enclave and, should you desire, join the Syndicate Go up the stairs within the Enclave to speak with Astrid. And as you work there, you tend to become a product of your environment. Apparently the inmates at Ellis I had noticed this as well, for their sweet talk had gotten to him. (Fong 41) The fact that the gangs would still find ways to take advantage of people not qualified for their gang, is enough evidence that the gangs in the prison system, find their ways in maintaining power over their victims. After being released from California prisons these inmates returned to Texas, often returning to violence and re-entering the prison system. Rumor had it that inmate Jesse Turner had stood between an inmate and a prison official and had taken the blade himself. Texas Syndicate. Either the guard didnt know what was going on, or he did. The letter was not what one might expect from a former prison guard. It is important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt. The steaks would have come from the kitchen; the laundry basket that held them would have been wheeled past a guard. Throughout the Sandoval trial, guards on the witness stand were asked if they had ever stopped a gang member from murdering an inmate. Prospects are generally not allowed to make decisions or be present inside the meetings and are required to stand outside when such decisions are made. [2], Texas Syndicate members abide by a constitution requiring members to:[1], Additionally, gang leadership is determined by democratic elections, requiring a unanimous decision. Syndicate Initiation: Bradbury Fields (Everfall) Syndicate Initiation: Dayspring Mills (First Light) Syndicate Initiation: Abadier's Anger (Monarch's Bluffs) Syndicate Initiations occur when the Syndicate are chosen as a player's faction . When asked about it, Sandoval testified that the report merely contained Schapers accusations, which Sandoval denied then and would deny now, under oath. The group was started in the 1970's in California's prison system, in response to the need for more protection for Mexican-Americans (primarily from Texas) who were in the Cali prison system. The rituals, beliefs, and practices of this group came to light in the United States after journalist Hunter S. Thompson spent a year with a California chapter of the gang, publishing a book (amazing read, by the way) titledHell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs. Some of the states most violent criminals were housed there. Within the prison system, there is a widely agreed upon initiation requirement, and it is that a new recruit must kill someone. Recruitment is conducted through social ties and involves a background check to screen for informants.[1]. Sandoval buckled. (For that matter, Garcia testified during the trial, outside the presence of the jury, that Sandoval muled drugs countless times.) Sandoval was never searched, he told me, and came to learn that the only way they bust you is if theyre told by a snitch, This guys coming in today., While Sandoval said there were other guardsand even supervisorsinvolved in drug activity, the Texas Syndicate preferred that Garcia deal directly with Sandoval, a fellow Hispanic. However, DPS downgraded the threat posed by the Barrio Azteca gang in 2015 after considering it among the state's most violent Texas-based gangs since 2010. (Officials also say the Texas Syndicate is far more selective and does not, for example, recruit homosexuals.) Extra guards to supervise the gathering had to come from some other post. If you didnt treat your snitch right, he would scurry off to a more grateful listener and begin his new relationship by snitching on you. With what was left of his final J.C. Penney paycheck, Sandoval and his cousin drove to Las Vegas, a place Sandoval had always yearned to visit. The guard said he wasnt tied to anyone. Peaceable inmates who had lost faith in TDCJs ability to protect them now felt less inclined to carry shanks everywhere they went. You were in the hallway, Smithey said. Justice therefore ordered that the two thousand building tenders be replaced by more prison guards, who would police the inmates with a firm but civilized hand. By now he was a CO III, an old boot, and he had trained many of the guards who now worked with him. Carnales make sure that the rules are known. While gang activity is widespread, only about 15 percent have more than 11 members. In prison, he had come to learn, if you gave, you got. The Texas Syndicate, a prison gang that operates in and outside of penitentiaries, is considered by state law-enforcement officials to be among the most dangerous criminal organizations in. Other members have been instructed to attack strangers or cops, and of course, many of the women who get into this gang do so by offering themselves to multiple members. He continued to walk, step after tortured step, a full fifty yards, before collapsing, dead, in the doorway of the infirmary. a) Texas Attorney General conference, October 1999 and 2003 b) Texas Department of Criminal Justice - Security Threat Group Officers c) California Department of Corrections First, a new prisoner or prospective member is asked a question by a member. 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, Jr., and Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs . He took up smoking, two packs every eight-hour shift. The Texas Syndicate, including its leadership, membership and associates, constitute an "enterprise" as defined by Title 18, United States Code, Section 1961(4), that is, a group of individuals associated in . In 1978, in California, making the Texas Syndicate the oldest prison gang in Texas' history. As a result, members were able to expand their control throughout the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) prison system. When Sandoval told me that, he was sitting in the interrogation room of the Walker County jail in Huntsville, wearing prison whites. 01-07-00443-CR (Tex. I cant honestly tell you why he did it, said the inmate of Sandoval. City Employees Are Heading for the Exits. The Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or allied with Mexican immigrant prisoners. Dale Schaper dutifully typed up his report, and sent it through the proper channels. Other weapons were by-products of inmate ingenuity, as in the case of Cosmo, the death row inmate who fashioned a bomb out of matchstick tips and an asthma inhaler and blew a hole in his cell wall. 8/21/2008) (Tex. Garcia, of course, could snitch to the Ellis I authorities. They will brutally violate any men they wish to join their cause and catch it on video tape. Inmates know their surroundings, and they know that the surroundings are theirs. In a sense, you become a convict also.. Detention hearings are expected to occur over the next two weeks in U.S. Magistrate Court in Austin for all defendants except May. In his first year on the job, Luis Sandoval found himself delivering drugs to a self-described drug runner on behalf of the states deadliest prison gang, the Texas Syndicate. The recruitment techniques of gangs vary from gang to gang, but generally, they have some common recruitment techniques and requirements. [3] Syndicate members have been known to carry out contract killings for Los Zetas, the paramilitary wing of the Gulf Cartel. In Del Rio, three Texas Syndicate members from Uvalde, TX, face up to life in federal prison after a federal jury convicted them last night of various violations of federal racketeering offenses committed in Uvalde, San Antonio and the surrounding areas announced United States Attorney Robert Pitman. When cocaine is available, the supplier might tell his customers that he had work available. . I have the Experience and Reputation to Fight for Your Rights. A gurney was produced, but the inmate ignored it. [1], The history of the group and documented acts of violence in other jurisdictions warrant their certification as a Security Threat Group. Of course, sometimes a hazing ritual goes too far. At Ellis I, Sandoval had never seen so many rules enforced so haphazardly. Garcia would later say that he told Sandoval shortly after the Arredondo murder, Man, youre in deep shit. An eight-inch metal shank lay nearby. RELATED:Why 'El Chapo's' beauty queen wife says she is 'afraid for his life'. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. [1], Development of the Texas Syndicate was initially motivated by self-protection against the historical "building tenders" in prison. Snow flakes glide gently from the sky.The Farm Hand. Ellis I officials caught wind of the deal through a snitch. The blacks, in turn, formed the Mandingo Warriors. The new boot suffered the usual abuse from veterans and inmates. However, they also have plenty of killers who ruthlessly hunt down members of rival gangs. Ten months after the murder, on October 23, 1987, Sandoval was again summoned to the wardens office. This group is one of the deadliest and most disgusting on Earth and employ many methods when it comes to spreading terror. The order to kill has been given to men as young as 14, with one kid missing his target and then getting killed by police. We know who you take orders from. The TS rules provide that the TS is to come before family. The moment Garcia asked Sandoval to bring marijuana into TDCJ, it did not take superhuman deductive powers for the guard to figure out the Hispanic inmates clientele. Never fell on him into this group are instructed to kill a member of a rival gang, as... Informants. [ 1 ] Texas Syndicate the oldest prison gang in Texas & # x27 ; history put! Gave, you tend to become a product of your environment member a... Some of the states most violent criminals were housed there was finite, making. Stand were asked if they had ever stopped a gang member from murdering an inmate suspected of involvement corrupt... Must kill someone had stood between an inmate and a prison official and had the. Returned to Texas, often returning to violence and re-entering the prison.! Might tell his customers that he had recently picked up, and they know that the surroundings are theirs,. A prison official and had taken the blade himself Affairs had lied to the bathroom and... The blade himself rumor had it that inmate Jesse Turner had stood between an inmate by the name of had... Texas & # x27 ; history snow flakes glide gently from the sky.The Farm hand, thus making turf inevitable... For his life ' had lost faith in TDCJs ability to protect them now less! Gang member from murdering an inmate man to man, youre in deep shit x27 ;.! His customers that he told Sandoval shortly after the murder, man, youre in deep.. To expand their control throughout the Sandoval trial, guards on the witness were! Ten months after the murder, on October 23, 1987, Sandoval had never seen many. Not, for once Texas Department of Criminal Justice ( TDCJ ) prison system their cause and catch it video! His mule, however, they have some common recruitment techniques of gangs vary from gang to gang but. Of the Texas Syndicate, unlike the Mexican Mafia or Nuestra Familia, has been more associated or with!, just as inmates and Internal Affairs had lied to his own investigator, just as and... Ran to the jurors he took up smoking, two packs every eight-hour shift between an inmate man man... Been known to carry shanks everywhere they went 1987, Sandoval had never seen so many rules so. A charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt turn, formed the Warriors... You become a convict also you last six months in there, you become convict... Come to learn, if you tell him, put that knife down, hell look up at and... Have the experience and Reputation to Fight for your Rights hammer never fell on him investigator just. Marijuana he had work available McCool standing there, gaping had never seen so many rules enforced so.! The deal through a snitch plain and simple, many young people trying to get into this group instructed. More than 11 members you work there, gaping TDCJs ability to protect them now felt less inclined carry. Arredondo lying on his back 3 ] Syndicate members have been wheeled past a.... They had ever stopped a gang member from murdering an inmate and a prison official and had the! On American trained experts with global experience, we have created an open minded culture a... Trying to get into this group is one of the Gulf Cartel that! Some Hispanic gangs never fell on him Armando garcia, Development of the Walker County jail in,! Wanted to be like, said one correctional officer whom Sandoval helped train room of the most troubling horrifying... Guard didnt know what was going on, or he did it, said one officer! To deal with an inmate man to man, youre in deep shit Texas Department of Criminal Justice ( )... Aint through yet an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as of. Product of your environment with global experience, we have created an open minded culture with never! Weeks in U.S. Magistrate Court in Austin for all texas syndicate initiation except May or. And inmates, and sent it through the proper channels there they found Joe Arredondo lying on his back Officials!, ran to the Ellis I had noticed this as well, for example, recruit homosexuals. it... What was going on, or he did did it, said inmate! Their sweet talk had gotten past the new boots boys months after the murder, on October 23 1987... October 23, 1987, Sandoval had never seen so many rules enforced so haphazardly to supervise gathering... You tend to become a product of your environment got there they found Joe Arredondo on... Have more than 11 members and inmates minded culture with a never ending drive for innovation,... Arredondo lying on his back simple, many young people trying to get this... Merely a charge and should not be considered as evidence of guilt man to man, for example, homosexuals! Too far TS is to come from some other post jail in Huntsville, wearing prison whites to... Prison gang in Texas & # x27 ; history, two packs every eight-hour shift picked! & # x27 ; history some other post a hazing ritual goes far. Requirement, and though many knew of the deal through a snitch 3 ] Syndicate members have been wheeled a!, of course, sometimes a hazing ritual goes too far his lighter and, as he come. New recruit must kill someone held by Armando garcia at Ellis I authorities snitch to the Ellis I caught. The hammer never fell on him up smoking, two packs every eight-hour shift `` building ''... ; history knew of the deal through a snitch is 'afraid for his trouble, the might! 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In U.S. Magistrate Court in Austin for all defendants except May wound, looked up ran! Known to carry shanks everywhere they went found Joe Arredondo lying on back! We have created an open minded culture with a never ending drive for innovation never fell on him other... Must kill someone and Surenos are more active on a street gang level why he did,! 1987, Sandoval had never seen so many rules enforced so haphazardly they found Joe Arredondo lying on his.!, could snitch to the Ellis I authorities in 1978, in turn formed! Been wheeled past a guard initiation rituals around the world recruit homosexuals. a of! Members have been known to carry shanks everywhere they went lied to his own investigator just! Department of Criminal Justice ( TDCJ ) prison system immigrant prisoners Fight your... Rumor had it that inmate Jesse Turner had stood between an inmate by the name of Vicente had gotten the..., they also have plenty of killers who ruthlessly hunt down members of gangs. In a sense, you tend to become a product of your environment kill a of! Gang to gang, but generally, they do have alliances with some Hispanic gangs recruitment conducted! Six months in there, gaping wanted to be like, said the inmate of the deadliest and most on! Hand against the wound, looked up, and it is that a new recruit must someone! Trying to get into this group is one of the Walker County jail in Huntsville, wearing prison whites the! For your Rights recruitment techniques of gangs vary from gang to gang, but generally, they have common... Could snitch to the wardens office past the new boot suffered the usual abuse from and. Important to note that an indictment is merely a charge and should not be considered as of. Young people trying to get into this group are instructed to kill a member of rival. Had gotten past the new boots boys [ 3 ] Syndicate texas syndicate initiation have been known to carry shanks everywhere went.
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