Pubdate: Mon, 28 Jul 2008
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2008 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/IuiAC7IZ
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Authors: Jeff Coen and Gary Marx

INFORMANT OFFERED RARE LOOK INSIDE GANG

Federal authorities say that when Jesse Guajardo  betrayed the Latin
Kings, it was a major victory in  fight against street crime

Jesse Guajardo choked back tears on the witness stand  in federal
court as he abandoned his second family once  and for all.

He had grown up in the Latin Kings street gang,  peddling drugs when
he was only 8 and becoming a  soldier when he was a young teenager.
After an uncle  recommended him for membership in 1988, he suffered a
beating or "violation" by three Latin Kings to join the  gang's ranks.

By 2006, at age 29, he was a chapter leader in the  southwest suburbs,
commanding two dozen soldiers and  making his betrayal of the Latin
Kings that much more  stunning. He was facing life in prison in a drug
case  when he decided to cooperate with the government.

"I had no choice," Guajardo told a defense lawyer who  called him a
traitor at the drug conspiracy trial of  his onetime gang boss,
Fernando King. "I had to choose  to continue to be a Latin King or
continue being a  father. I didn't ask for this."

Federal authorities call Guajardo's cooperation  remarkable and say
his testimony was a significant  moment in their battle against
Chicago's entrenched  street gangs. He became one of the
highest-ranking  Latin Kings to testify against his superiors, in the
process offering a rare glimpse into the powerful  gang's structure
and reach.

King, 38--the national "Supreme Inca" or No. 2  leader--was convicted
Tuesday in a drug conspiracy that  saw him back Guajardo's drug
operation with Latin King  muscle.

Working undercover for the federal Bureau of Alcohol,  Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, Guajardo secretly  recorded high-level gang
meetings, once catching King  reprimanding members of the gang's
"Crown Town" region,  near Midway Airport, for disrespecting gang rules.

" [Expletive], we don't go for it in New York City, in  New Jersey,
Connecticut--we don't go for it . . ." King  said on the undercover
recording.

Guajardo said the gang maintained security in its  stronghold in the
Little Village neighborhood by  establishing a perimeter patrolled by
gang soldiers.  The gang used maps to plot out escape routes that
rivals probably would use if they carried out drive-by  shootings in
the neighborhood, Guajardo said. Armed  security teams were on standby
to block exits and take  swift revenge.

In addition to Little Village and "Crown Town," the  Latin Kings had
six other regional organizations  stretching from Waukegan to East
Chicago, Ind., with  hundreds--if not thousands--of members in
neighborhood  chapters.

Below the gang's highest ranks, Corona and the Supreme  Inca, were
dozens of leaders who made up the gang's  strict hierarchical
structure and went by such titles  as nation enforcer, treasurer and
cacique, or chief.  One of the gang's top deliberative bodies, the
"Crown  Council," functions as both the legislative and  judicial
branch of "The Almighty Latin King Nation."

Guajardo was the leader, or Inca, of the "Lenzi" Latin  Kings, a
chapter with 24 members named for an avenue in  Hodgkins. But he had
the ear--and trust--of the gang's  most powerful leaders. The reputed
Corona, Augustin  Zambrano, asked Guajardo to care for his
heroin-addicted son, Guajardo testified.

While working as an informant, Guajardo recorded King  as he ordered
his soldiers to beat two Latin Kings in  March 2006 after they threw a
beer and mistakenly hit  Zambrano's wife.

Authorities have said King essentially is part of the  second
generation of leaders of the Latin Kings, a gang  that began in
Chicago a half-century ago and remains  one of the country's largest.

The gang was directed for years by Gustavo "Gino"  Colon, a squat,
powerfully-built North Sider who  continued to exert control over his
troops even after  he was in prison for a quarter-century on a murder
conviction.

About 24 hours before his release from state prison,  Colon was
rearrested by federal authorities and charged  with running the gang's
drug operations from prison.  Now 53, he is currently serving a life
sentence at the  federal super-maximum security prison in Florence,
Colo.

Colon's incarceration, like that of legendary Chicago  street gang
leaders Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover, has  left Chicago's gangs,
including the Latin Kings,  dispersed but still powerful and deadly.

The gangs have been disrupted further by aggressive  federal
prosecutions such as the "Operation Broken  Crown" probe that resulted
in the convictions of King  and 31 other Latin Kings.

Still, the Latin Kings have chapters in New York,  Florida and other
states and even have a presence  overseas, including in Spain and the
Dominican  Republic, experts say. And while gang leaders in  Chicago
retain influence over members far and wide, the  Latin Kings, like
other street gangs, are organized by  neighborhoods and act largely in
their own interests  even though they share a common ideology and structure.

Zambrano, the reputed Corona, and King owned a  remodeling company and
a modest takeout restaurant.

It was at the restaurant in December 2006 that  Guajardo, acting as a
government informant, gave King a  kilogram of fake cocaine in
exchange for King's promise  to protect Guajardo's drug-trafficking
operation. A  grainy videotape of the transaction was played at
King's trial.

Joseph Lopez, King's attorney, argued in court that  Guajardo and
federal investigators entrapped his  client. He said King had stepped
away from gang life.

After King's arrest, federal authorities searched his  home and
confiscated the Latin King's constitution and  manifesto that lay out
gang rules, bylaws, symbols and  its quasi-spiritual,
quasi-revolutionary philosophy.

The constitution lists the gang's official annual  holiday as Jan.
6--Kings Holy Day--when gang members  fast to honor "the memory of our
departed Brothers and  Sisters." Gang membership is open to anyone who
adopts  "Kingism" except for rapists, heroin addicts or anyone  who
has killed a Latin King or his or her relative.

Also, any member "found guilty of being a traitor or  police
collaborator shall . . . be expelled from the  Nation."

As for Guajardo, being expelled from the gang was a  given. During his
time as an informant, he was more  worried about staying alive.

"If the Latin Kings knew I was cooperating, they would  kill me," he
said. 
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