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The Gangster Matriarch of L.A.
The Daily Beast ^ | September 13, 2010

Posted on 09/13/2010 2:28:01 PM PDT by La Lydia

Maria 'Chata' Leon, mother of 13 kids, ruled over a criminal empire with connections to a human smuggling ring...Leon, the then-44-year-old mother of 13 children, and the much-feared head of a drug-dealing dynasty, was stuck in the border town of Mexicali. It was one of her children, Danny "Clever" Leon, who, wielding an AK-47, had died in the 2008 shoot-out with police, and now she wanted to attend his funeral in the United States.

Eventually, she would get her way right in front of LAPD gang officers. As politicians on all sides of the political spectrum argue about illegal immigration, an ongoing federal case in Los Angeles, prompted by an earlier investigation into the Leon family's criminal activities, shows the extent to which some gang members and human smugglers in Southern California have established a parallel—and largely invisible—reality, shifting like shadows across the Mexican border, eluding capture for crimes committed on both sides...

Maria Leon sat like the queen spider in a web spun across the border from north to south—head of a massive criminal enterprise of drug-dealing and murder, some of it backed by the militant revolutionary group known as the Mexican Mafia, according to investigators.

For decades, the Los Angeles Police Department sought to dismantle the power of the gangland matriarch, and her extended family but, ensconced in a heavily fortified house on Drew Street in northeastern L.A., in a notorious, gang-infested neighborhood filled with mostly single-family homes and gang-controlled apartments, the gang seemed almost impossible to dislodge. When officers finally raided the Drew Street compound, they discovered a shrine to the patron saint of narco trafficking, Jesus Malverde as well as surveillance cameras and an extensive weapons stash that included a Tech 9 machine gun, a Smith Corona Rifle, a bag of explosive devices, and a “Muscle Man” Taser gun. From these headquarters, Maria Leon and her family had turned the neighborhood into a hellhole...

For her part, Maria Leon is serving an eight-year sentence in a federal prison, having been arrested in 2008 by immigration agents, on her way visit a neighbor. Many others in the gang have pleaded guilty and are serving lesser sentences. Real, meanwhile, is cooperating with state and federal investigators, and has publicly testified against some of his former gang—and family—members...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Mexico
KEYWORDS: anchorbabies; comingtoyourtown; crimaliens; gangs; illegals; immigration; mexico
Nice. Another part of our country that our government has ceded to criminal illegal aliens -- East LA, where even the police dare not go.
1 posted on 09/13/2010 2:28:02 PM PDT by La Lydia
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To: La Lydia; AuntB; Liz

Just doing the jobs........


2 posted on 09/13/2010 2:33:16 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker
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To: stephenjohnbanker

Let us all celebrate diversity. They add so much to our American culture. /s


3 posted on 09/13/2010 2:43:26 PM PDT by forgotten man (forgotten man)
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To: La Lydia

8 years?
¿¡8 YEARS!?

Shouldn’t it be the Death penalty for something like this?!?!?!

She might be out in 4 years for “good behavior.”

Yikes!

¡Que lastima!


4 posted on 09/13/2010 2:55:42 PM PDT by PATRIOT1876 (Language, Borders, Culture, Full employment for those here legally)
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To: PATRIOT1876

I agree. Eight years for all she did is a pittance. It should have been something like 25. I am sure her government-funded lawyer arranged some sort of plea bargain. When she gets out, she should be tattooed and deported to Mexico: if she shows up again in LA, back to prison.


5 posted on 09/13/2010 3:08:02 PM PDT by La Lydia
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To: La Lydia

***a Smith Corona Rifle,***

1903-a3 Smith Corona? five shot bolt action.

Tec-9 machine gun or just a 30 round semi-auto?

Inquiring minds want PICTURES!


6 posted on 09/13/2010 3:11:51 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( AKA Rodrigo de Bivar)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
1903-a3 Smith Corona? five shot bolt action.

I have one. Are you really interested?

7 posted on 09/13/2010 3:31:05 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Even the earth is bipolar.)
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To: La Lydia

All gang banging scum had mothers.


8 posted on 09/13/2010 3:41:15 PM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
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To: Anti-Bubba182
All gang banging scum had mothers.

But I'd wager that most gang bangers didn't have mothers who were gang banging scum themselves.

9 posted on 09/13/2010 3:47:16 PM PDT by TheThinker (Communists: taking over the world one kooky doomsday scenario at a time.)
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To: La Lydia

L.A. street gangs=al Qaida=terrorist organizations!

Any questions?


10 posted on 09/13/2010 4:04:52 PM PDT by getarope (One Big Ass Mistake, America!)
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To: forgotten man

and our crime rate.


11 posted on 09/13/2010 4:41:44 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker
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To: BipolarBob

***1903-a3 Smith Corona? five shot bolt action.
I have one. Are you really interested? ***

I’ve already got one! But what would you want for yours?


12 posted on 09/13/2010 4:54:50 PM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar ( AKA Rodrigo de Bivar)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

Not really interested in selling but would entertain offers. So what are they worth?


13 posted on 09/13/2010 4:57:39 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Even the earth is bipolar.)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar
I am officially embarrassed. I thought someone had messed up and put the name of a typewriter.
14 posted on 09/13/2010 5:48:43 PM PDT by wbarmy (I chose to be a sheepdog once I saw what happens to the sheep.)
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To: wbarmy
I thought someone had messed up and put the name of a typewriter.

Well, it was made in a typewriter factory - wikipedia blurt:

In late 1942, Smith-Corona Typewriter Company also began production of the M1903A3 at its plant in Rochester, NY. Smith/Corona parts are usually identified by the absence of markings (Smith/Corona bolts are sometimes marked with an "X" on top of the bolt handle root). To speed production output, two-groove rifled barrels were adopted, and steel alloy specifications were relaxed under 'War Emergency Steel' criteria for both rifle actions and barrels. M1903A3 rifles with two-groove 'war emergency' barrels were shipped with a printed notation stating that the reduction in rifling grooves did not affect accuracy. As the war progressed, various machining and finishing operations were eliminated on the M1903A3 in order to increase production levels.

I'm sure it was deadly enough, despite the lack of QWERTY.

15 posted on 09/13/2010 9:17:13 PM PDT by no-s (B.L.O.A.T. and every day...because some day soon they won't be making any more...for you.)
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To: TheThinker

I wouldn’t take that bet.


16 posted on 09/13/2010 10:43:04 PM PDT by absalom01 (You should do your duty in all things. You can never do more, you should never wish to do less.)
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