Mexican Mafia Death Row Inmate & Sureño Rappers Charged with Partnering with Sinaloa Cartel

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A recent superseding indictment charged several high level Mexican Mafia or La eMe members and Sureño gang members with collecting taxes and extortion payments in their areas of influence. Standard operating procedure for the Mexican Mafia prison gang who would greenlight those who refused to pay.

In this case, a pair of gang members turned rappers who collected street taxes from other rappers and musicians who claimed affiliation burned the house of one who didn't want to pay up. The indictment also showed that longtime eMe figure who controlled most of San Diego and other areas, one of the three-man California commision for the gang had partnered up with the Sinaloa Cartel on human smuggling and drug trafficking.

He even offered Mexican Mafia protection in the federal prison system for El Chapo...all while sitting on death row in San Quentin Prison. Now, with California's death penalty all but gone, he faces federal charges.

In 1988, Ronaldo Ayala was sentenced to death for murdering three men in a San Diego auto shop.

Instead of facing the gas chamber at San Quentin, the reputed Mexican Mafia member turned death row into a base of power, law enforcement authorities and gang dropouts say, collecting extortion payments, trafficking drugs and ordering violent attacks through a vast network of affiliated gang members and collaborators from San Diego to Seattle.

Ayala, 74, now faces racketeering charges brought by federal prosecutors in Sacramento, who allege the National City native conspired with members of the Sinaloa Cartel to distribute methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl throughout the western United States.

Interestingly, Ayala is not the top defendant listed on the indictment however, that defendant and their crimes are redacted.

Who is Ronaldo Ayala?

Ronaldo Mudrano Ayala, is also known “OG,” “El Professor,” or “Profe.” He was an inmate at San Quentin State Prison and had been on death row since 1989 for the murder of three employees at an auto body shop robbery in San Diego, California. He was transferred to Centinela State Prison last year after Governor Gavin Newsom ended California's death row.

Ayala oversaw La eMe’s interests and tax collection in areas including San Diego, Riverside County, Sacramento, San Francisco, and into Seattle, Washington.

Ayala also oversaw the agreement between La eMe and the Sinaloa Cartel, which included an offer of federal prison protection for Sinaloa Cartel leader "El Chapo" who is currently serving a life sentence in the Super Max ADX Florence prison in Colorado.

For Ayala, his Mexican Mafia journey in prison began four decades ago.

Auto Body Shop Murders

Ayala went on trial in 1988 for the three shooting deaths at A & Z Auto Repair off 43rd Street in southeastern San Diego.

Found shot to death April 26, 1985, were Ernesto "Cha Cho" Mendez Dominguez, 30; his brother-in-law, Marco Zamora-Villa, 31, and Jose "Cucuy" Luis Rositas, 24. All had their hands tied behind their backs and the were gagged and Ronaldo's brother Hector Ayala demanded $10,000. Three were shot to death, while a fourth was able to escape wounded. The surviving victim later testified that two of the slain men were heroin dealers.

Controlling San Diego

In 2017, Ayala, as part of a large federal indictment following 'Operation Emero' was charged alongside Jose "Bat" Marquez, a fellow San Diego based Mexican Mafia member who had worked alongside the AFO/Tijuana Cartel since the 1990s.

The investigation revealed that incarcerated Mexican Mafia members were using facility phones, E-mail, mail, and smuggled in cell phones to communicate with associates who were ordered to extort victims, sell drugs, and to collect money on behalf of incarcerated members. The two key groups were identified as being directed by federal inmate Jose “Bat” Marquez and California death row inmate, Ronaldo Ayala.

San Diego has produced many Mexican Mafia members, but none as powerful as Ayala, a witness told FBI agents in 2023. Because he was held on death row with high-profile gang members from across California, Ayala’s reach went beyond San Diego, the witness told the FBI.

The witness, Ayala’s alleged liaison to gang members in the San Diego area, pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and was sentenced to a lengthy prison term. 

She had been charged with mailing letters containing drugs to George Bailey Detention Center in San Diego.

According to a transcript of the witness’ interview with the FBI, Ayala carved up the San Diego area with two other alleged Mexican Mafia members, his brother Hector and Richard "Richie Rich" Buchanan.

The Ayala brothers, Ronnie and Hector.

Buchanan controlled the east side of San Diego and much of its South Bay.

Ayala’s brother Hector got North County and Chula Vista. Ronaldo Ayala had Spring Valley, Paradise Hills, National City and “everything else,” she said.

“At the end of the day,” she told the agents, “this is Ronnie’s city.”

According to the witness, Ayala also collected a regular payment called “the light bill” from the San Diego County jail system, which he split with his brother and Buchanan. 

Every module in the county jail system was required to contribute $50 a month through CashApp, the woman told the agents.

Human Smuggling from TJ

San Diego County prosecutors charged 7 people in 2022 with operating a trap house in the Encanto neighborhood for Ayala as part of Operation Scrapbusters. His representative in San Ysidro, Juan “Sleepy” Castro, oversaw loan-sharking and human smuggling operations in addition to selling drugs as a leader of the street gang Sidro. Castro was sentenced in 2023 to 10 years in prison for trafficking methamphetamine.

Ayala was mentioned but not charged in the large indictment as "he was on death row" according to prosecutors. The following year, he was transferred out of death row as California disbanded the practice.

Encanto, San Diego area trap house.

Castro was involved in human smuggling operations from Tijuana into the San Diego area working with a Paisa gang member and others for cartel figures in Mexico. Ayala instructed Castro to kill the rival gang member and take over operations. However, the Paisa gang member contacted Ayala and in turn the pair partnered together, pushing Castro out until his arrest in 2022.

Drugs for Prison Protection

Also indicted is Angel "Snappy" Anthony Esparza, was also a death row inmate at San Quentin State Prison. Esparza handled La eMe business for Ayala. Esparza instructed others concerning the amount of La eMe taxes which Ayala ordered to be collected regarding the drugs received through the agreement between La eMe and the Sinaloa Cartel.

The indictment alleges that La eMe formed a partnership with the Sinaloa Cartel offering protection for the cartel’s incarcerated members, including Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, in exchange for the Sinaloa Cartel supplying controlled substances from Mexico.

"Snappy" was sent to death row for the 2009 robbery killings of two men following a robbery in Thermal, California. At the same time, he was sentenced to 75 years to life for killing a 16-year old teenager in nearby Coachella.

Ayala’s underlings ran various rackets, all contributing their tax to Ayala. Some bought methamphetamine in Tijuana and shipped it to San Bernardino or Texas. Others ran casitas or illegal gambling parlors, and trap houses where people could buy and use drugs, according to the FBI witness.

Allen “Frankie Chino” Fong, is a San Jose based Sureño gang member serving a 17-year prison term for assault, and is charged with collecting taxes for Ayala while being held at the state prison in Solano. He taxed gang members in several Northern California areas including San Jose, San Francisco and Sacramento.

Sureño Rapper Extortion

Ronald “Temper” Sepulveda acted as a La eMe associate in the Riverside County area outside of prisons. Ayala referred to him as “our main supporter." 

He oversaw the collection of street taxes, extortion threats, and ordered violent acts as well. He also collected taxes from entertainers, particularly musicians, who purported to have Sureño or La eMe affiliation.

Sepulveda is also known by his rap name "Big Temps" and has long been wheelchair bound.

Two reputed members of Seattle’s United Lokotes gang, Samuel “Payaso” Morales, also a Sureño rapper and Alexis “Menace” Rodriguez, are also accused of extorting an unnamed rapper whose property was burned when he refused to pay. Ayala order the arson to take place.

Sureńo rapper Payaso was charged with collecting taxes, extortion and arson.

Through his membership in a Sureño gang, Morales acted as a La eMe associate. Morales carried out a La eMe a directive to improve La eMe tax collection by organizing Sureño gangs in the area surrounding Seattle.

Rapper King Lil G.

The musician mentioned in the indictment is unnamed, but it is likely to be another rapper tied to and representing Sureño gangs. One rapper who has been subject to extortion by gang members is King Lil G who was paying taxes to Mexican Mafia member Jorge "Huero Caballo" Gonzalez, originally an 18st gang member as well.

Operation Los Impuestos in San Diego

Operation Los Impuestos

Today, San Diego District Attorney Summer Stephan announced their takedown of street level gang members carrying out the orders of Ayala and other Mexican Mafia shot callers stemming from investigations in Barrio Logan and other areas of San Diego.

Operation Los Impuestos, or “the taxes” in Spanish, led by the San Diego Police Department, resulted in the arrests last week of 39 people believed to be involved in the powerful prison gang. Seven additional defendants being charged are currently already in custody.  

The suspects are largely street gang members who “took orders from [cartel[ bosses operating in state prison and preyed on business owners by forcing mafia-style taxes,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said Tuesday at a news conference.

“They dealt illegal drugs including pounds of deadly fentanyl, committed widespread violence and trafficked weapons such as ghost guns and AR-15s,” Stephan said.

One of the cases charged as a result of the operation involved the homicide of an 18-year-old National City man, Juan Carlos Porter, in Chicano Park in September.

The suspect, a 15-year-old boy, used “an AR-15 supplied by an older gang member,” Stephan said.

Sources DOJ, LA Times, LA Times, Borderland Beat, FBI, Keegan Hamilton, San Diego Tribune, Desert Sun, San Diego Tribune