- Raids & Arrests
- Nov 5, 2026
110+ California Gang Members ARRESTED As Feds Say Mexican Mafia Ran Them From Prison
Federal prosecutors have raided the Mexican Mafia again and again for thirty years. In April 2026, agents hit about thirty addresses in Orange County and named 47 people in three indictments, saying a man in a California state prison ran the operation by phone. A month later, a Fresno County operation led to 69 arrests. In January 2025, a separate federal indictment accused Ronaldo Ayala, who was sentenced to death in 1989, of running extortion and drug networks from San Diego to Seattle, and of overseeing a partnership with the Sinaloa cartel that included an offer of protection for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. This video goes through how the gang started in 1957, how its “tax” system works, how phones reach prison cells, what the 2025 and 2026 cases allege, and why a federal prosecutor says the next investigation is already planned.
So why does it keep coming back?
News clips are used for commentary, criticism and reporting under fair use. Stock footage licensed from Envato.
Presumption of innocence
How the Mexican Mafia formed at Tracy in 1957, and how its northern rival, Nuestra Familia, split California How the gang’s “tax” and “green light” system works, according to prosecutors and police How a prison gang leader gets a cell phone, according to a federal prosecutor The death row indictment: the Sinaloa partnership, the El Chapo offer, and the jail “light bill” San Diego’s Operation Los Impuestos: 39 arrests, a grenade order and Molotov cocktails The 1995 racketeering case, Operation Black Flag and the 2018 jail case What the federal prosecutor said about “cat and mouse,” parole and the death penalty Operation Hands Down in Fresno, and a jail stabbing officials described Everyone named in this video as charged is presumed innocent. We found no public report of a plea, trial date or conviction for the defendants in the 2025 and 2026 cases.
Sources
U.S. Attorney’s Office, Central District of California (April 23, 2026 press conference) · U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of California · Los Angeles Times · San Diego County District Attorney · Fresno County Sheriff and California Attorney General (May 28, 2026 press conference) · California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation · Police Magazine · NBC Palm Springs · Times of San Diego · ABC7 Los Angeles.
