Los Angeles County prosecutors on Wednesday charged 19 individuals with conspiring to homicide a rapper who allegedly angered a member of the Mexican Mafia, a prison-based syndicate of Latino gang members.
In response to a criticism filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket, accused Mexican Mafia member Manuel “Snuffy” Quintero issued an order in 2022 to kill Nelson Abrego, who performs beneath the identify Swifty Blue.
Within the criticism, prosecutors described a sprawling conspiracy that performed out over TikTok messages and recorded jail calls, drawing in prisoners from Kern County, jail inmates in downtown Los Angeles and gang members in Paramount, the southeast Los Angeles County metropolis that each Quintero and Abrego name dwelling.
Quintero, 49, was arrested Wednesday and has but to enter a plea. It wasn’t clear from court docket information whether or not he has a lawyer. A longtime member of the Paramount Varrio gang, Quintero has served jail time for assault, manufacturing methamphetamine and false imprisonment, court docket information present.
Manuel Quintero, proven in a Feb. 15, 2014 {photograph} from the California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation, has been recognized by legislation enforcement officers as a member of the Mexican Mafia.
(California Division of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
On New 12 months’s Eve in 2022, an alleged subordinate of Quintero, Giuseppe “Intelligent” Leyva, advised an informant he’d notified gang members in Paramount, Compton and downtown L.A. that they’d directions to assault Abrego “on sight,” the criticism says.
Leyva, 34, is now in custody on an unrelated federal case that fees him with promoting medicine and weapons in Imperial County. He pleaded responsible to trafficking methamphetamine in March and has but to be sentenced. His legal professional within the federal case didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
After the informant requested if “Snuffs is mad” on the rapper, Leyva allegedly mentioned of Abrego: “F— him.”
It’s unclear why Quintero was offended with Abrego, who couldn’t be reached for remark Wednesday.
In a 2024 interview with The Occasions, the rapper declined to debate any potential points with the Mexican Mafia or “jailhouse politics.”
Abrego beforehand mentioned his music resonates with individuals as a result of “everyone desires to be a gangster.”
“Whether or not you’re a lawyer, a police or a child going to highschool, everyone desires to be huge, dangerous and difficult,” he mentioned in 2024.
Eight months after he spoke to the informant, the criticism says, Leyva warned one other particular person in a TikTok message to steer clear of the rapper.
“Let me give u a lil 411 s u gained’t get mis guided with the web,” he wrote, in keeping with the criticism. “With Swifty his profession is finished.”
“I talked to him tried to information him however he didn’t hear,” Leyva allegedly continued, including that now the rapper was “getting his blues” in Males’s Central Jail.
In November 2023, Abrego was jailed on a gun possession cost. Onesimo “Vamps” Gonzalez, held two cells down from the rapper, known as his mom and advised her to ask an affiliate if “the one who sings” was “nonetheless good,” in keeping with the criticism.
Gonzalez’s mom hung up. When her son known as again, she allegedly mentioned, “He’s no good.”
Males’s Central Jail in downtown Los Angeles.
(Al Seib/Al Seib/Los Angeles Occasions)
Each Gonzalez and his mom are charged within the conspiracy. Gonzalez was already in custody; Dominga Gonzalez, 66, was arrested Wednesday at her Bellflower dwelling, in keeping with a press release from the FBI.
Two days after mom and son spoke, one other jail inmate, Jonathan “Dreamer” Quevedo, known as a person imprisoned in Kern County who was utilizing a contraband mobile phone, in keeping with the criticism.
After mentioning “Swifty Blue,” Quevedo allegedly requested Jacob “Eagle” David if he recalled a “raza rapper” who was “within the bathe.”
Prosecutors believed this was a reference to Jaime Brugada Valdez, a rapper often known as MoneySign Suede who was stabbed to dying within the showers on the Correctional Coaching Facility in Soledad in 2023.
“The tip end result must be the identical,” allegedly replied David, who was imprisoned for carjacking and theft.
The following day, the criticism says, David instructed Quevedo to inform the attackers: “Deal with that s— with prejudice… You understand how that’s like a court docket time period? Nicely, this s— [is] with prejudice.”
Quevedo allegedly confirmed it was “already in movement.”
When inmates have been set free of their cells at 5:50 the subsequent morning to take a bathe, Adrian “Slick” Bueno, Andrew “Largo” Shinaia and Jude “Loopy” Valle entered Abrego’s cell, the criticism says. Whereas Michael “Weasel” Ortiz obstructed a close-by digicam, Bueno, Shinaia and Valle beat the rapper and “sliced” him, prosecutors charged.
About 5 hours later, Quevedo known as a lady from jail and requested her to inform David in state jail that “outdated boy acquired his rap session,” in keeping with the criticism.
“They didn’t actually get a superb present,” Quevedo allegedly mentioned. “Anticipate them to be performing in in all probability the 4000 flooring” — one other space of the jail — “right here quickly.”
The try on Abrego’s life was unsuccessful, and by March 2024, the criticism says, Leyva advised Joshua “Demon” Euan in a TikTok message the rapper was recording a dwell stream exterior his household dwelling “as we converse.”
Euan drove to the home at 1 a.m. and despatched Leyva {a photograph} of a gun within the cup-holder of a automobile, in keeping with the criticism. “He ain’t right here,” he wrote to Leyva.
Later, Euan allegedly advised Leyva he despatched individuals to vandalize Abrego’s household dwelling. In response to the criticism, he despatched pictures of graffiti that learn, “Swifty Blue 187,” a reference to the California penal code part for homicide.
Euan, 37, eluded arrest Wednesday and stays at giant, in keeping with the FBI.
