Eagle Pass Member of Texas Mexican Mafia Sentenced to Consecutive Terms of Life in Federal Prison

United States Attorney Robert Pitman announced that in Del Rio this morning, 26-year-old Texas Mexican Mafia member Victor Esquivel, a/k/a “Youngster,” of Eagle Pass, Texas, was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences plus 10 years in federal prison for his role in various federal racketeering offenses—including the murder of Jose Damian Garza in Hondo, Texas on July 19, 2008—committed in Uvalde, Eagle Pass, Del Rio, and the surrounding area. Federal rules require the life sentence to be served without the possibility of parole.

In July 2011, a federal jury found Esquivel guilty of several Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO)-based charges, including one count of conspiracy to conduct the affairs of an enterprise through a pattern of racketeering and two counts of violent crimes in aid of racketeering.

Esquivel is the 11th of 12 defendants convicted in this RICO conspiracy to be sentenced. Prison sentences handed down thus far in this case range from 84 to 300 months. The remaining defendant—23-year-old Javier “Javi” Guerrero of Uvalde, Texas—is scheduled to be sentenced later this year before U.S. District Judge Alia Moses in Del Rio.

All 12 defendants conspired to conduct the affairs of the Texas Mexican Mafia through a pattern of racketeering activity, which included murder, solicitation of murder, drug trafficking, and extortion. The extortion took the form of coercive collection of a 10 percent drug tax, also known as “the dime,” from drug distributors known to the members of the criminal enterprise. Collection was enforced by robbery, serious bodily injury, or other acts of violence, including death.

The Texas Mexican Mafia was formed in the early 1980s by inmates in the Texas prison system. Over the years, the gang has expanded its efforts to promote widespread criminal activity through extortion, narcotics trafficking, and violent crime. Also known as “La Eme” or “Mexikanemi,” the organization has been the subject of numerous federal indictments in the Western District of Texas since 1991. This investigation, however, is the first to directly target the gang’s machinery operating along the Texas–Mexico international border in the cities of Eagle Pass, Del Rio, Crystal City, Carrizo Springs, Uvalde, Sabinal, and Hondo.

This case resulted from a joint investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), and the Texas Department of Public Safety-Criminal Investigations Division, with assistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Hondo Police Department, Texas Department of Public Safety-Texas Rangers, Uvalde Police Department, and the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office.