LOS ANGELES
– A Mexican Mafia member and “shotcaller” of the Santa Fe Springs and
Whittier-based Canta Ranas street gang was sentenced today to life plus an
additional 30 years in federal prison for leading the wide-ranging criminal
enterprise and for murdering a rival gangster at a San Gabriel Valley
restaurant in 2016.
Jose Loza,
41, was sentenced by United States District Judge Virginia A. Phillips, who
also set a June 1 hearing to determine the amount Loza will pay as restitution
to his victims.
Loza is the
lead defendant in a 2016 federal grand jury indictment charging 51 Canta Ranas
members and associates with racketeering and other related offenses.
After a
month-long trial in August 2019, a jury found Loza guilty of 12 felonies.
Specifically, the jury found Loza guilty of one count of conspiracy to violate
the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, four counts of
engaging in violent crimes in aid of racketeering (VICAR), one count of
conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent
to distribute methamphetamine, three counts of using a firearm during a crime
of violence, one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and one count
of money laundering conspiracy.
Loza
implemented the orders of David Gavaldon, an imprisoned senior Mexican Mafia
member who was himself a long-time member of the Canta Ranas street gang and
who was not charged in this case as he is serving a life-without-parole
sentence in Pelican Bay State Prison. Gavaldon exerted control over Canta Ranas
and other gangs in Whittier, Santa Fe Springs, Riverside, and Stockton, and he
received compensation in the form of “rent” or “taxes” generated by drug trafficking
and other offenses committed in gang territory.
In addition
to implementing Gavaldon’s orders, Loza murdered a fellow Mexican Mafia member
who was marked for death by the prison gang after he was perceived as
encroaching upon the territories of other Mexican Mafia members. During the
April 19, 2016 incident at a restaurant in the San Gabriel Valley community of
Basset, the victim was shot six times, his bodyguard was severely wounded, and
an innocent restaurant patron was shot multiple times.
Loza’s
accomplice in the 2016 murder, Leonardo Antolin, 25, of Whittier, pleaded
guilty to five felonies in this case and has been sentenced to 40 years in
federal prison for his crimes.
Prosecutors
have secured 48 convictions so far in this matter, which is the result of
Operation Frog Legs. During the course of that three-year investigation, law
enforcement seized 56 firearms and made several narcotics seizures, including
nearly one pound of methamphetamine seized during the execution of search
warrants after Loza murdered the other Mexican Mafia member.
Operation
Frog Legs is the result of an investigation by the Southern California Drug
Task Force, which is led by the Drug Enforcement Administration as part of the
High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiative. The Task Force members
that participated in Operation Frog Legs were U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigation, the Whittier Police Department,
the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, IRS Criminal Investigation, and the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Office of Correctional
Safety, Special Service Unit. This investigation was conducted with the support
of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).
This matter
was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Carol Alexis Chen, Chief of
the International Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section, and
Assistant United States Attorneys Kathy Yu, also of the International
Narcotics, Money Laundering, and Racketeering Section and Victoria A.
Degtyareva of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section.
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