LOS ANGELES- Federal prosecutors have charged more than 80 members of the violent Mexican Mafia gang with taking part in a conspiracy to run drugs and carry out violent assaults ordered from inside Los Angeles County jails.
The U.S. attorney’s office said Wednesday it had charged 35 people in custody and arrested 32 defendants. Another 16 remain as fugitives.
A pair of indictments says leaders of the “gang of gangs” called shots from behind bars that controlled drug dealing and violence both inside jail and on the streets.
The indictments say a lawyer and several women referred to as secretaries helped facilitate activities outside of jails.
The Mexican Mafia is an organization of imprisoned street gang leaders who control drug trafficking operations and order retaliatory violence both inside and outside California prisons and jails.
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