37 charged in takedown of "destructive" South LA gang linked to officer's killing

Federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials announced the indictment of 37 suspected members and associates of a South Los Angeles gang accused of dozens of crimes armed robbery, drug trafficking, extortion and three murders.

"We are here today... to announce a major gang takedown targeting one of the most destructive and largest gangs in Los Angeles," U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada told reporters during a Tuesday news conference.

The 11 newly unsealed federal indictments include RICO charges filed against 19 of the defendants and criminal counts ranging from assault to murder, including charges connected to the killing of a man stomped, kicked and beaten to death outside a bar in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of South LA in October 2022. He was allegedly targeted for being in the gang's so-called "territory." 

Estrada said the gang "controls its territory through the use of violence including murders and assaults." 

The same year, three of the gang's members shot and killed Los Angeles Police Department Officer Fernando Arroyos in a robbery attempt, leaving the off-duty officer to collapse in an alleyway in South LA. Bystanders tried performing CPR but he later died at a hospital. The three killers were sentenced decades in federal prison last month.

"He excelled in everything he did," Estrada said of Officer Arroyos, adding that he grew up in LA and attended Crenshaw High School before graduating from UC Berkeley. 

"He could've done anything he wanted to. He could've lived anywhere he wanted to," Estrada said. "But he chose to come back to Los Angeles, and he chose public service."

In addition to the defendants charged in the newly unsealed indictment, the investigation led to the seizure of 21 pounds of methamphetamine, nine pounds of fentanyl and six and a half pounds of heroin, according to federal prosecutors. Investigators also seized about $70,000 in cash and 25 firearms in the yearslong probe into the gang, authorities said.

The street gang operates out of 3-square-mile section of South LA it considers its territory and was started in 1950, according to Akil Davis, assistant director in charge for the FBI's Los Angeles field office.  

Nineteen of the 37 defendants were arrested Tuesday morning while another four were taken into custody the night before, according to Davis. He said six defendants are already incarcerated while the remaining eight are considered fugitives with some of them believed to be in Mexico.

"We're actively seeking them," Davis said.

The assistant FBI director said photos of the defendants were released Tuesday and anyone who may know them, or may have seen them, should come forward and contact the FBI.

The gang has known connections to the Mexican Mafia which largely operates out of prisons, and as such, many of its own members and leaders are behind bars, Estrada said. So the gang relies on those not incarcerated to take orders, he said.

"It can't operate or function without members on the outside," Estrada said. "Those are the people who follow the orders to commit  murder and assaults... those are the ppl who terrorize our community."

LA County Sheriff Robert Luna said the people of South Los Angeles are who face the worst of the gang's violence.

The communities mentioned up here that have routinely been victimized over and over are communities of color," Luna said, adding that he refuses to refer to the gang by name.

He said federal officials and prosecutors must give the name as part of announcing the conspiracy-related charged. But he doesn't have any such obligation.

"I will not mention them," Luna said. "I do not want to be part of recruiting for these gangs that are out there."

Federal prosecutors said most of the federal charges announced Tuesday come from an indictment listing 19 defendants facing RICO charges including a 30-year-old South LA man prosecutors describe as a "shot-caller" named Celerino Jaramillo, a.k.a. "Bizzy." Another South LA man – 19-year-old Jonathan Reyes, a.k.a. "Creeper" – is one of the suspects in the brutal beating death of another man outside a bar in Florence-Firestone in 2022.

He and another defendant from South LA – Oscar Hernandez, 30, a.k.a. "Drex" – are accused of murdering another man prosecutors say was a member of the gang who had violated its rules. The victim is identified in court documents as R.A.

They allegedly killed R.A. on June 19, 2023. The next month, Jaramillo is accused of killing another person who fell out favor with the gang, murdering a victim only identified as D.E. along with another one of the defendants, Hugo Armando Pineda, 36, a.k.a. "Menace" of South LA.

Another newly unsealed indictment in the case is charges eight accused associates of the gang with weapons and drug-related charges such as conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, methamphetamine and heroin as well as illegally using and possessing firearms and ammunition.

Eight other indictments list charges including methamphetamine distribution while one other accused member of the gang is named in another separate indictment and charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.  

Most of the defendants are facing a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and could receive up to life if they are convicted of all charges, prosecutors said.

The case was investigated by the LAPD, FBI, LA County Sheriff's Office and U.S. Marshals Service.