LOS ANGELES
A former 18th Street gang member plead guilty Tuesday to federal drug trafficking and admitted that he was the triggerman in the 2006 execution-style of a man who failed to pay “taxes” to a member of the Mexican Mafia, according to authorities.
Eddie “Criminal” Garcia, 39, plead guilty to participating in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in relation to a case that targeted the San Gabriel Valley-based Puente-13 gang, officials said.
Authorities said Garcia admitted that he murdered another gang member who failed to pay to make those extortion payments.
In his plea agreement, Garcia, of Baldwin Park, admitted that in 2006 he and two members of Puente-13 lured another gang member to an apartment complex, where Garcia “shot the victim…in the head with a pistol,” an execution that constituted pre-meditated first-degree murder, according to officials.
Garcia was acting at the behest of leaders of Puente-13, who targeted the victim, a Valinda man named David Dragna, because Dragna was suspected of taking drug money that was intended for the Mexican Mafia, officials said.
Garcia’s guilty plea is part of an agreement that allows Garcia to serve between 18 years and 24 years in federal prison.
Garcia is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 25.
Two members of Puente-13 have previously been convicted of participating in Dragna’s murder. Angel “Smiley” Torres, 39, and Steven “Flaco” Nunez, 36, each plead guilty in federal court.
Torres was sentenced to 15 years and six months in prison, and Nunez was sentenced to 10 years. The Dragna murder was unsolved prior to a federal racketeering indictment that was unsealed in June 2010.
The Mexican Mafia member, who controlled the Puente-13 gang, and his brother were sentenced in 2013 to life in federal prison after being convicted at trial for their roles in leading a wide-ranging Puente-13 drug and murder conspiracy, officials said.
The investigation into the Puente-13 criminal enterprise and the murder of Dragna was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, officials said.