EMF — a history of the El Monte Flores

Ben Baeder compiled a brief look at El Monte Flores, a gang comprised of 400 members that has its origins in an neighborhood near a nursery.

Richard Rodriguez, who was kicked in the head by an El Monte police officer Wednesday after a high-speed pursuit is a member of the gang, officials said.

Gang experts said the gang has close ties to La Eme, the Mexican Mafia and was linked to the Maxon Road Massacre:

A member of the gang, Luis Maciel, orchestrated the murder of an El Monte family on Maxson Street in 1995, Valdemar said.
Gunmen recruited by Maciel killed five people, including a baby and 5-year-old girl. The murders were in retaliation for Anthony Moreno leaving the Mexican Mafia. Moreno was killed in the attack.
Maciel was sentenced to death.
“They’re everywhere and they’re in the Mexican Mafia,” Valdemar said.

Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email

El Monte cop owns clothing line catering to gang bangers

George Fierro, the El Monte cop identified by sources inside City Hall as the officer who kicked a prone suspect in the head, owns Torcido Clothing, a line of apparel catering to gang members that glorifies prison life.

Here’s an excerpt from Friday’s story:

The Torcido

torcido

This logo appears on a t-shirt sold on torcidoclothing.com. The number refers to the penal code section for gang crimes. The period in the shirt is a bullet.













Clothing company “features some of the hardestauthentic jail house threads for the streets. Straight from East L.A., Califas …” according to its Web site.’

Selling clothes about gang or prison life is “completely inconsistent” with behavior expected from officers, said Jay Wachtel, a Cal State Fullerton ethics instructor in the criminal justice program.

“I can’t possibly imagine a law enforcement officer selling clothes that glorify gang activity,” he said.

On Torcido’s Web site, shoppers can buy a T-shirt emblazoned with “186.22,” the section of the state’s criminal code that gives more prison time to people who commit a crime related to street gang activity.

Another shirt has “L.A. County Jail” on the front. Another has “Dept. of Corrections P-Bay Segregated Housing Unit,” which refers to the Pelican Bay State Prison unit where leaders of the Mexican Mafia are housed.

Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email

Minor rap sheet, major headache in El Monte

A couple of quick updates in El Monte police department beating of a prone suspect:

First of all, suspect Richie “Turtle” Rodriguez apparently had a rap sheet filled with minor, non-violent offenses. Police have said Turtle was a member of El Monte Flores.

In the LA Times, City Councilwoman Pat Wallach, a frequent and vocal critic of the department, refused to criticize the actions of the cop who did the kicking.

“We are waiting for reports before we make specific comments on what occurred,” said Wallach.

Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email

ACLU demands investigation of El Monte PD

The videotaped beating of a pursuit suspect by El Monte Police officers has caught the eye of the ACLU.

An El Monte police officer kicked Richard Rodriguez, 23, of El Monte in the head following a half-hour high speed pursuit through the East San Gabriel Valley.
Ramona Ripston told the Los Angeles Times the video “is truly chilling.”
Rodriguez, a member of El Monte Flores was on parole at the time of the pursuit, El Monte police said.
Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email

High speed pursuit leads to two arrests *

27793-SV14-PUR-thumb-200x264.jpg

A pursuit that started in El Monte, wound through Baldwin Park and ended up in Pico Rivera looked a lot like something from Grand Theft Auto.

Regardless, the chase carried live on KTLA and KCAL ended in a car accident that resulted in two arrests.
Octorazzi himself, Raul Roa, got shots of the pair, apparently they were on parole, and likely members of El Monte Flores.
KNBC shot video of the end of the pursuit that shows El Monte cops kick the suspect in the head then apparently exchanging high-fives.

Here’s their video:

View more news videos at: http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video.

Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email

A spate of missing or dead women

Perhaps this sort of news comes in threes:

There was the woman’s body found in the Angeles National Forest.

There was the West Covina woman found shot to death in Pomona.
How long until Fox News or CNN pays attention? (Don’t hold your breath — none of these women were teen prom queens, models or lived on the East Coast)
We’ll keep on top of it here though ….
Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email

Vehicle of missing El Monte woman found on PCH

Fox 11 is reporting that a 1998 four-door Honda Accord belonging to a missing El Monte woman has been found on PCH near Malibu.

Maria Chavez, 39, was last seen leaving her workplace at an indoor swapmeet in the 4700 block of Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles.
Foul play is suspected in Chavez’s disappearance. El Monte detectives and Sheriff’s homicide detectives are on their way to the scene.
Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email

EMF on the move north to Washington state

The El Monte Flores gang seems to have migrated north into Seattle suburbs, according to an article in the Seattle Times.

A Burien teen was apprehended near Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on Sunday, days after prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with a gang-related drive-by shooting in February.

Jose Noe Cervantes, 17, was booked into the Regional Justice Center in Kent just before 5:30 p.m. Sunday and is being held on $200,000 bail, jail records show. He was arrested at South 188th Street and International Boulevard, just east of the airport, a jail spokesman said.

According to charging documents that were filed Thursday, Cervantes was one of three young, Hispanic males in a red Honda Civic that was heading south in the 13600 block of Ambaum Boulevard South around 8 p.m. on Feb. 28. Another group of young Hispanic males — self-admitted members of the Sureo 13 El Monte Flores gang — were standing outside an apartment complex when Cervantes allegedly fired a handgun from the car, hitting one in the left thigh, charging documents said.

The victim told King County sheriff’s detectives that the occupants of Civic all wore blue hats and had blue bandannas concealing their faces. Before the shooting, the males in the Civic were flashing gang signs, indicating their membership in the Sureo 13 Varrio Loco street gang, charging documents say.

Facebook Twitter Reddit Tumblr Linkedin Email