gangs2

Although known on the streets for over fifty years, the Mexican Mafia has flown under the radar of public awareness and has flourished beneath a deep cover of secrecy. The Mexican Mafia has infected our prisons and now is poisoning our neighborhoods.

This undated image provided by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department shows weapons confiscated during a series of arrests of top members of the Mexican Mafia in the Coachella Valley, a desert east of Los Angeles, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney's Office. Thirteen members of one of Southern California's most feared gangs, including a 75-year old woman who allegedly collected "taxes" from other gangs in the Mexican Mafia were arrested and hit with a flurry of narcotics and money laundering charges, according to court papers unsealed Friday, April 27, 2007. (AP Photo/Riverside County Sheriff's Department)

LOS ANGELES — The Associated Press reports that thirteen reputed members of the Mexican Mafia were arrested this week on narcotics and money laundering charges, according to court papers unsealed Friday.

The raids early Thursday netted top members of the Mexican Mafia in the Coachella Valley, a desert area east of Los Angeles, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney's office.

"Operation Clean House" followed a 10-month wiretap investigation of Jose Chavez Huerta, 42, who is alleged to have run a sophisticated methamphetamine and heroin trafficking business as shot caller for the area's branch of the Mexican Mafia.

The Mexican Mafia, also called "La Eme," was formed by Mexican-American inmates in a Northern California prison in the 1950s.