One gang, the feds allege, extorted taxes from vendors at a swap meet, while the Harpys engaged “in armed robberies of local residents, including students of the University of Southern California.”
In California there are many who believe that the most powerful Latino in the state isn’t one of the Golden State’s politicians nor any influential, behind-the-scenes powerbroker.
No, the Latino many think holds the most clout in California doesn’t even have a Spanish surname—and his home isn’t a mansion but the humblest of abodes.
His name is Danny Roman, and his home for the rest of his life is Pelican Bay State Prison, 350 miles north of San Francisco.
From behind bars, Roman runs the Mexican Mafia, a prison gang whose reach stretches far beyond the penitentiary walls. More powerful in some communities than any multi-national corporation, the Mexican Mafia operates throughout California and controls the drug market in Roman’s hometown, Los Angeles.
No one knows just how much money Roman and the Mexican Mafia have—or where they have it stashed—but their fortune is believed to be as much as hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe more.
In recent years, out of its own choosing by imposing gang war truces, the Mexican Mafia has maintained a low profile, interrupted only when a prosecutor decides to go after an organized crime group whose leadership remains behind bars.
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