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Mexican Mafia leader offered protection to El Chapo, prosecutors say – Jobsmaa.com

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In 1989, Ronaldo Ayala was sentenced to death for killing three people at a San Diego auto repair shop.

Instead of facing the gas chamber at San Quentin, the notorious Mexican Mafia member turned the death penalty into a base of power, law enforcement officials and gang defectors say, extorting money, drug trafficking and orchestrating acts of violence from San Diego to Seattle.

Ayala, 74, now of National City, faces fraud charges brought by federal prosecutors in Sacramento. Conspired with members of the Sinaloa cartel To distribute methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl throughout the western United States.

Ayala, who was transferred last year from San Quentin to Sentinella State Prison after Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended the death penalty, has yet to enter a plea. It was unclear Friday if he was represented by an attorney.

A prisoner is escorted by guards in a prison block.

Ronaldo Ayala was held on San Quentin's death row for three decades.

(Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

In an unsealed indictment made public on Friday, prosecutors allege Ayala oversaw a partnership between the Mexican Mafia and the Sinaloa cartel that provided protection to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico's most powerful drug-trafficking group, and its former leader.

It's unclear from the indictment whether Guzmán accepted — or was required to — the alleged offer. The former kingpin is serving life at ADX Florence, a maximum-security federal prison in Colorado, where he has no contact with other inmates.

San Diego has produced many Mexican Mafia members, but none as powerful as Ayala, a witness told FBI agents in 2023.

The witness — Ayala's alleged connection to gang members in the San Diego area — pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term.

According to witness interviews with the FBI, Ayala carved up the San Diego area with two alleged Mexican Mafia members, his brother Hector and Richard Buchanan.

Buchanan controlled the east side of San Diego and much of its south bay. Ayala's brother got North County and Chula Vista. Spring Valley, Paradise Hills, National City and “everything else,” he told Ronaldo Ayala.

“At the end of the day,” she told agents, “this is Ronnie's town.”

According to the witness, Ayala also collected a regular fee from the San Diego County jail system, known as a “light bill,” which he split with his brother and Buchanan. Each block in the prison system A contribution of $50 per month is required Through CashApp, the woman told the agents.

Ayala's henchmen ran different scams, he said. Some bought methamphetamine in Tijuana and shipped it to San Bernardino or Texas. Others ran Casitas – Illegal gambling establishments – or, according to the witness, “trap houses” where people can buy and use drugs.

San Diego County prosecutors charged seven people with running a trap house in the Encanto neighborhood for Ayala in 2022. His representative in San Ysidro, Juan “Sleepy” Castro, oversaw loan sharking and human trafficking operations in addition to drug dealing, prosecutors wrote in court documents. Castro was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2023 for trafficking methamphetamine.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán after his capture in Mexico in 2014.

(Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press)

Ayala's reach extended beyond San Diego as he was put on death row with high-ranking gang members from across California, the witness told the FBI.

According to indictments made public this week, Ayala collected “taxes” from Riverside, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle, where prosecutors say gang members working under Ayala set fire to a musician who claimed to be “Mafia” in a music video. ” relationships.

Two reputed members of Seattle's United Logos gang, Samuel “Piazo” Morales and Alexis “Menace” Rodriguez, are accused of extorting money from an unnamed musician.

Helping Ayala collect “taxes” on drug sales from a Sinaloa cartel partnership was Angel “Snappy” Esparza, who was sent to death row for murdering three people in Riverside County, the indictment charges.

Ronald “Temper” Sepulveda, whom Ayala refers to as “our main backer,” oversaw the affairs of notorious Mexican Mafia members in Riverside County, including extorting money from musicians, prosecutors allege.

Alan “Frankie Chino” Fang, a San Jose gang member serving a 17-year sentence for the attack, was accused of “taxing” Ayala while he was in state prison in Solano.

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