Law & Crime
A former Sureño gangster and Mexican Mafia ally who helped control Los Angeles jails from the inside testified Monday that a lawyer provided a crucial bridge between members incarcerated in different prisons, relaying messages about potential murder plots and other key business decisions.
Luis “Hefty” Garcia, 43, is the star prosecution witness against indicted attorney Gabriel Zendejas-Chavez, describing in his two days on the stand Chavez’s work as a facilitator for the Mexican Mafia who used his status as an attorney to secure private access to members in the most restrictive prisons in the nation.
He said Monday he hopes to shed a possible life sentence for attempted murder through his testimony, though he vowed to “take responsibility” for all his past crimes, including an uncharged attempted murder to which he confessed during cross-examination.
“I wasn’t expecting you to have me exactly name the name,” Garcia told Chavez’s lawyer, Meghan Blanco. But, he added, “now that I’ve named a name of someone I’ve assaulted in the past, I’m willing to accept responsibility.”
Attorney Gabriel Zendejas-Chavez leaves the first day of his criminal trial on Aug. 10, 2022, in downtown Los Angeles, with his legal team following. (Photo: Meghann Cuniff of Law&Crime)
Garcia and Chavez were among 83 defendants charged in two indictments announced in May 2018 by federal prosecutors as part of a years-long investigation dubbed Operation Dirty Thirds, which refers to a tax they say the Mafia imposed on drug sales inside the jails.
With his own plea agreement already in, Garcia could earn a reduction in his sentence through his work with prosecutors against Chavez. In testimony on Friday, the former top-ranking Sureño gang member in the LA jails answered that a rat is “a person who is doing what I’m doing now.”
