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A former FBI informant stabbed Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer who was convicted for murdering George Floyd, according to court documents filed on Dec. 1. John Turscak, 52, stabbed Mr. Chauvin 22 times with an "improvised knife" in federal prison in Arizona, according to the documents. Mr. Turscak was subdued by responding corrections officers. Mr. Turscak later told officers he would have killed Mr. Chauvin if the officers had not responded so quickly, federal prosecutors said in the documents. The stabbing took place on Nov. 24 at about 12:30 p.m. Mr. Turscak waived his Miranda rights and told FBI agents...

Two major law enforcement stings targeting Southern California gangs have rocked the Los Angeles and San Diego underworld. The FBI conducted raids against two major gangs this week, arresting more than 50 gangsters and associates involved in numerous rackets, from drug trafficking to underage prostitution. Members of East LA's Big Hazard gang were rounded up Wednesday morning, while Federal officials in San Diego Thursday indicted 22 members of the Tycoons syndicate, involving members from various local street gangs. Big Hazard, aka Hazard Grande, East Los Angeles In a massive undertaking dubbed Operation Resident Evil, more than 800 law enforcement officials from various...

A US prison inmate has been charged with attempted murder after stabbing Derek Chauvin, the ex-police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd. Prosecutors said ex-gang member John Turscak used an improvised blade to knife Chauvin 22 times on 24 November at a federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. Chauvin survived the attack and was said to be in a stable condition. He is serving multiple sentences for Floyd's death, which triggered nationwide protests and rioting. Turscak, a former member of a Mexican Mafia gang, allegedly targeted Chauvin in the prison's law library at lunchtime. He later said that he...

JUST IN: The inmate who stabbed Derek Chauvin 22 times in prison last week has been identified by The U.S. Attorney's Office 52-year-old John Turscak. Oddly enough, Turscak is a former FBI informant!! Coincidence? I don’t think so. Seems like a coordinated effort to kill Chauvin. “Turscak told investigators that he attacked Chauvin on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, as a symbolic connection to the Black Lives Matter movement and the "Black Hand" symbol associated with the Mexican Mafia gang, prosecutors said.”

Skip to main content Jussie Smollett headed back An incarcerated former gang member and FBI informant was charged Friday with attempted murder in the stabbing last week of ex-Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin at a federal prison in Arizona. John Turscak stabbed Chauvin 22 times at the Federal Correctional Institution in Tucson and said he would’ve killed Chauvin had correctional officers not responded so quickly, federal prosecutors said. Turscak, serving a 30-year sentence for crimes committed while a member of the Mexican Mafia gang, told investigators he thought about attacking Chauvin for about a month because the former officer, convicted...

Ezequiel Romo had been gone a long time. He went to prison in 1996. When he returned to Panorama City 18 years later, he didn't like what he saw. He was going to "clean out house," Romo told another veteran of his gang. He would rid the neighborhood of rivals, of informants, of drug addicts and the do-nothings he considered dead weight. Prosecutors said the 45-year-old made good on that promise: On Romo's orders, members of his gang, Blythe Street, turned on and killed one another in a string of murders that left eight dead, according to evidence presented at...

A convicted murderer on the run since escaping a prison bus after stabbing its driver last month was shot dead by law enforcement late Thursday after he killed a family of five and stole their truck from a rural weekend cabin...Gonzalo Lopez, 46, was killed [by Police] about 10:30 p.m. Thursday in Jourdanton, Texas, about 35 miles south of San Antonio...three of [his victims were] children.

The U.S. federal prison system was placed on lockdown nationwide following a deadly incident at a Texas prison, officials said Monday. “Multiple inmates were observed fighting at the United States Penitentiary Beaumont” in Texas, said the Federal Bureau of Prisons in a news release. Prison staff then “immediately secured the area” but found inmate Guillermo Riojas and inmate Andrew Pineda with life-threatening injuries, prison officials said. They were transported to a nearby hospital, where they were both pronounced dead, the bureau said. Meanwhile, it added, “Two additional inmates were transported to a local hospital for further medical assessment and treatment.”...

All federal prisons in the US have been placed on lockdown after a gang fight left two inmates dead at a facility in Texas. Two other prisoners were seriously hurt in the violence at the high security Beaumont facility on Monday, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) said. The violence at the Beaumont facility in Texas, which has a prison population of 1,372, reportedly involved members of the MS-13 street gang - a brutal group established in Los Angeles which has roots in El Salvador. The two inmates who died were named as Guillermo Riojas, a 54-year-old who had been...

Woke Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascon is embroiled in yet another scandal after his own cops went over his head to ask federal prosecutors to charge the alleged killers of an off-duty LAPD officer. LA County Sheriff Alex Villanueva sought out the federal prosecution for the four gang members accused of killing Officer Fernando Arroyos, 27, on January 10 over fears pursing them through Gascon could lead to lighter sentencing. Last year, Gascon axed sentencing enhancements

A Latino gang member faces sentencing in October for orchestrating the firebombings of homes of black residents in the Boyle Heights area five years ago in an effort to drive them out of the defendant’s turf. Carlos “Rider” Hernandez, 34, pleaded guilty Monday to five felonies that together carry a sentence of 15 years to a possible life term in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder set an Oct. 7 sentencing date. In the early morning hours of May 12, 2014, eight members of an East Los Angeles street gang, which claims...

To the jailers of California, the Mexican Mafia is known as 'the gang of gangs'...“They have the ability to turn gangs that are historically sworn enemies that fight on the streets into allies when they come inside our jail system,” said Commander Joseph Dempsey of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Quinones says the gang’s power extended as its 30-year reputation for viciousness in the jail system won the allegiance of Latino street gangs throughout Southern California. “The Mexican Mafia’s influence and importance to Southern California goes far far beyond the prisons now,” Quinones told The Daily Beast. “I came...

A federal grand jury recently charged dozens of Mexican mafia members for allegedly running an extensive drug operation from inside Los Angeles County jails. On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced that 83 defendants were charged in two federal racketeering indictments as part of an FBI-led investigation.

LOS ANGELES - Leaders of the notorious Mexican Mafia were charged Wednesday with running a conspiracy to control drug trafficking and carry out violence ordered from inside Los Angeles County jails. The U.S. attorney's office charged 83 people tied to racketeering conspiracies that alleged they ran drugs and carried out violent assaults and even murders. "These cases have delivered a major blow to the Mexican Mafia and leaders of many of the street gangs under the control of the organization," U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna said. "By taking out the gang members who control the jails, and by disrupting their communications...

The man sitting in the back of the vehicle is wearing a light-colored shirt, a patterned tie and an air of authority. He's headed to a conference in Anaheim to give a speech and, as trees, hedges and apartment buildings flash by, he rattles off a list of accomplishments — his book, his expert witness testimony. "This has been a dream of mine," he says in the online video, referring to his speaking invitation. "You know how many people have said, 'You can't do it'?" There was every reason to doubt Rene "Boxer" Enriquez could. Enriquez, 52, is serving a...

A one-eyed man wanted in connection with a double homicide in Panorama City was arrested on suspicion of murder after gang detectives found him at a motel a half-block away from the incident. Witnesses connected Angel Santana, 29, with the July 17 double killing of 22-year-old Maron States and 19-year-old Deshawn Miles outside a 7-Eleven, police said. According to police, Santana and another man allegedly began shooting at two men after a brief confrontation. The other gunman, who has not been named, fled south on Sepulveda Boulevard, police said...

<p>A federal hate-crimes indictment highlights differences in response between Barack Obama and previous presidents when racists target blacks with violence.</p> <p>The Feb. 8 Department of Justice press release says that members of the Compton 155 gang, whose members call themselves “nigger killers” (the release spells it out N***** Killers) or “NKs,” use “violence and threats of violence in an effort to drive African-Americans out of their ‘territory’ on the west side of Compton.” Further, “[t]o instill fear in African-Americans, members of the gang tag their gang moniker and ‘NK’ throughout their ‘territory.’”</p>

Authorities in Maverick County found the bodies of two men in their underwear dumped in a canal Tuesday morning. The men haven't been identified, said Chief Deputy Sheriff Ruben Cano. The bodies have been taken to San Antonio for autopsies. One of the men had a large cut on his neck and was wrapped in plastic bags, and may have been killed somewhere else, Cano said. The second victim appeared to have been killed in the canal north of Eagle Pass, he said. Sheriff's investigators, who are working with the Texas Rangers, don't have any leads and haven't found any...

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo made a comment this week regarding San Antonio at a news conference touting recent successes against the Mexican Mafia. Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the 309 years doled out on Friday are “a tremendous gift to the people of Austin.” “The Mexican Mafia is not welcome in Austin,” Acevedo said. “I hope they go back to San Antonio.” Federal, state and Austin law enforcement officials took part in the Tuesday presser. The Statesman reported: The FBI said the case is the largest joint prosecution of the gang in Austin....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Police in southern California have arrested 60 people and broken up an Iraqi criminal ring accused of selling drugs, machine guns and improvised bombs out of an immigrant social club, authorities said on Thursday. The swoop by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and local police targeted a network operating out of El Cajon, which is near San Diego and close to the border with Mexico.