A street gang with MBA order and Mafia cruelty

The full weight of who he had become hit him, startlingly, when he witnessed that one little grin. Inside a public housing project in San Antonio, Oscar Esparza says he watched the grin snake across the face of a fellow gang member who had just admitted killing one of his oldest and closest friends.

At that moment, Mr. Esparza realized he had joined a gang that was about far more than just kickin' back during the day and hitting clubs at night. "At first I thought he was just playing around, but then I saw his face," he says. "Now I don't talk to none of them anymore."

In a Texas courtroom last week, Esparza closed the final chapter of his life as a member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation. He was a star witness in the case against Paul De La Rosa, who was ultimately convicted of murdering fellow gang member Christopher Guillen in an internal power struggle.

The trial provided a terrifying glimpse into the culture of one of the nation's oldest and most highly structured street gangs, where rules are considered paramount to the group's survival and any violation is met with beatings and even death.

Strikingly similar to the Mafia in organization, the Almighty Latin King Nation blends criminal activity with mysticism and tribalism - and inside that world, a member's biggest fear is not rival gangs, but crossing his own colleagues.

While the largest chapters are in Chicago and New York, the trial here in central Texas shows how the Latin King Nation is gaining power and prominence in other parts of the country. As its influence grows, other gangs are studying its tactics and organizational chart. "Gangs are finding that, to stay in business, they need some type of structure," says Wes Daily, president of the East Coast Gang Investigators Association in New York. "And many are looking at the Latin Kings and trying to mimic that structure, because this gang gets things done."

The tale of Mr. Guillen's murder began two years ago on March 2, 2001, when about 20 Texas members of the Latin King Nation were summoned to a council meeting at the southwest San Antonio housing project.

Their agenda included a bald accusation - that Guillen wanted to assassinate Jose Beltran, known to members as "Step One," the leader of the Austin and San Antonio tribes. The reason, say prosecutors: He wanted to wrest power from the current leadership. Guillen felt that the head of the regional "210 Lions Tribe" should be from San Antonio, not Austin, where Beltran lived.

Thinking he was paying loyalty to the gang, Esparza, nicknamed "King Oro," pulled Beltran aside and told him what Guillen was saying. "I thought they were just gonna beat him up and that's it," Esparza said at the trial.

Esparza's warning prompted Beltran to call members of the gang from Austin and Killeen, several of whom showed up with guns. "Step One brought in the real gang members to clean up," argued Mr. De La Rosa's attorney, Alexandra Gauthier. The way she portrayed it, the tribe De La Rosa, Esparza, and Guillen belonged to was more like a "big fraternity." "These kids grew up in a part of town where that's what you do," she said. "It was like a bad Rotary Club that got out of hand quickly."

Everyone was relaxing, playing cards and listening to music when Bianca "Crazy K" Ferrell showed up that night. Ms. Ferrell testified she "got rolled into" the Latin Kings and Queens - one of the few gangs that admits women - when she was 13. The initiation: getting kicked and punched by other gang members until she couldn't walk. After hearing about the plan to kill Beltran, members agreed on punishment for Guillen - a beating. "They decided they were going to give him a violation," Ferrell said. "It lasted for 3 minutes and 60 seconds."

This is how a typical Latin King violation is referred to because it symbolizes a 360-degree revolution - a complete circle which, when completed, all is back to normal. Violations are dispensed liberally, for things such as dishonoring Latin Queens, not showing up at meetings, and fighting with other members.

But Beltran wasn't satisfied with that punishment, Esparza said. He told De La Rosa to "terminate" Guillen, and a group left with him in tow. His bullet-ridden body was later found in a ditch in San Marcos, about halfway between Austin and San Antonio.

Page: 1 | 2