LOS ANGELES
A high-ranking member of the Oxnard, California-based Surtown Chiques street gang and who has ties to the Mexican Mafia will be sentenced next year, authorities announced today.
Armando “Criminal” Molina, who was found guilty Friday, tried to control drug trafficking in Ventura County, officials stated.
Molina, a “shot-caller” with the gang, extorted “taxes” on behalf of the Mexican Mafia prison gang and was found guilty by a jury of federal narcotics charges, according to officials.
Molina, 36, of Ventura, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and five counts of distribution of methamphetamine.
U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt scheduled sentencing for Feb. 6, officials stated. He is facing up to life in prison.
Molina was arrested in 2013 as part of Operation “SuperNova,” a multi-agency task force investigation that targeted Mexican Mafia-affiliated street gangs in Ventura County, officials stated.
According to evidence presented at a four-day trial, between October 2012 and March 2013, Molina and his co-conspirators sold 247 grams of pure methamphetamine to a confidential informant working for an FBI task force.
Molina was arrested in 2013 on a criminal complaint targeting “shot callers” of Ventura County street gangs.
The criminal complaint details a year-long undercover investigation and outlines a series of narcotics transactions that led to the seizure of more than two pounds of methamphetamine and quantities of heroin that were being sold on the streets of Ventura County.
The drugs were supplied by a drug trafficking organization controlled by Mexican Mafia member Martin Madrigal-Cazares.
Local street gangs communicated with the head of the organization in Mexico, while controlling narcotics sales and collecting “taxes” on behalf of the Mexican Mafia in Ventura County, the complaint alleges.
On the eve of Molina’s trial, his co-defendant, Frank “Villain” Ruiz, 37, of Ventura County, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, the evidence indicated.
Ruiz’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for Dec. 12, at which time he will face a statutory maximum sentence of life in federal prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison.
In total, eight defendants have been convicted in connection with this phase of the operation.
DOJ NOTED:
The investigation was conducted jointly by the FBI, the Ventura Police Department and the Oxnard Police Department.
The Ventura County-Multi-Agency Gang Task Force is one of many FBI Safe Streets Task Forces throughout the United States, funded for the purpose of assisting local police in identifying and addressing violent crime in America.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Agustin D. Orozco of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section and Alexander B. Schwab of the Major Frauds Section.