INFORMANT OFFERED RARE LOOK INSIDE GANG

Federal authorities say that when Jesse Guajardo betrayed the Latin
Kings, it was a major victory in fight against street crime

Jesse Guajardo choked back tears on the witness stand in federal
court as he abandoned his second family once and for all.

He had grown up in the Latin Kings street gang, peddling drugs when
he was only 8 and becoming a soldier when he was a young teenager.
After an uncle recommended him for membership in 1988, he suffered a
beating or "violation" by three Latin Kings to join the gang's ranks.

By 2006, at age 29, he was a chapter leader in the southwest suburbs,
commanding two dozen soldiers and making his betrayal of the Latin
Kings that much more stunning. He was facing life in prison in a drug
case when he decided to cooperate with the government.

"I had no choice," Guajardo told a defense lawyer who called him a
traitor at the drug conspiracy trial of his onetime gang boss,
Fernando King. "I had to choose to continue to be a Latin King or
continue being a father. I didn't ask for this."

Federal authorities call Guajardo's cooperation remarkable and say
his testimony was a significant moment in their battle against
Chicago's entrenched street gangs. He became one of the
highest-ranking Latin Kings to testify against his superiors, in the
process offering a rare glimpse into the powerful gang's structure
and reach.

King, 38--the national "Supreme Inca" or No. 2 leader--was convicted
Tuesday in a drug conspiracy that saw him back Guajardo's drug
operation with Latin King muscle.

Working undercover for the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,
Firearms and Explosives, Guajardo secretly recorded high-level gang
meetings, once catching King reprimanding members of the gang's
"Crown Town" region, near Midway Airport, for disrespecting gang rules.

" [Expletive], we don't go for it in New York City, in New Jersey,
Connecticut--we don't go for it . . ." King said on the undercover
recording.

Guajardo said the gang maintained security in its stronghold in the
Little Village neighborhood by establishing a perimeter patrolled by
gang soldiers. The gang used maps to plot out escape routes that
rivals probably would use if they carried out drive-by shootings in
the neighborhood, Guajardo said. Armed security teams were on standby
to block exits and take swift revenge.

In addition to Little Village and "Crown Town," the Latin Kings had
six other regional organizations stretching from Waukegan to East
Chicago, Ind., with hundreds--if not thousands--of members in
neighborhood chapters.

Below the gang's highest ranks, Corona and the Supreme Inca, were
dozens of leaders who made up the gang's strict hierarchical
structure and went by such titles as nation enforcer, treasurer and
cacique, or chief. One of the gang's top deliberative bodies, the
"Crown Council," functions as both the legislative and judicial
branch of "The Almighty Latin King Nation."

Guajardo was the leader, or Inca, of the "Lenzi" Latin Kings, a
chapter with 24 members named for an avenue in Hodgkins. But he had
the ear--and trust--of the gang's most powerful leaders. The reputed
Corona, Augustin Zambrano, asked Guajardo to care for his
heroin-addicted son, Guajardo testified.

While working as an informant, Guajardo recorded King as he ordered
his soldiers to beat two Latin Kings in March 2006 after they threw a
beer and mistakenly hit Zambrano's wife.

Authorities have said King essentially is part of the second
generation of leaders of the Latin Kings, a gang that began in
Chicago a half-century ago and remains one of the country's largest.

The gang was directed for years by Gustavo "Gino" Colon, a squat,
powerfully-built North Sider who continued to exert control over his
troops even after he was in prison for a quarter-century on a murder
conviction.

About 24 hours before his release from state prison, Colon was
rearrested by federal authorities and charged with running the gang's
drug operations from prison. Now 53, he is currently serving a life
sentence at the federal super-maximum security prison in Florence,
Colo.

Colon's incarceration, like that of legendary Chicago street gang
leaders Jeff Fort and Larry Hoover, has left Chicago's gangs,
including the Latin Kings, dispersed but still powerful and deadly.

The gangs have been disrupted further by aggressive federal
prosecutions such as the "Operation Broken Crown" probe that resulted
in the convictions of King and 31 other Latin Kings.

Still, the Latin Kings have chapters in New York, Florida and other
states and even have a presence overseas, including in Spain and the
Dominican Republic, experts say. And while gang leaders in Chicago
retain influence over members far and wide, the Latin Kings, like
other street gangs, are organized by neighborhoods and act largely in
their own interests even though they share a common ideology and structure.

Zambrano, the reputed Corona, and King owned a remodeling company and
a modest takeout restaurant.

It was at the restaurant in December 2006 that Guajardo, acting as a
government informant, gave King a kilogram of fake cocaine in
exchange for King's promise to protect Guajardo's drug-trafficking
operation. A grainy videotape of the transaction was played at
King's trial.

Joseph Lopez, King's attorney, argued in court that Guajardo and
federal investigators entrapped his client. He said King had stepped
away from gang life.

After King's arrest, federal authorities searched his home and
confiscated the Latin King's constitution and manifesto that lay out
gang rules, bylaws, symbols and its quasi-spiritual,
quasi-revolutionary philosophy.

The constitution lists the gang's official annual holiday as Jan.
6--Kings Holy Day--when gang members fast to honor "the memory of our
departed Brothers and Sisters." Gang membership is open to anyone who
adopts "Kingism" except for rapists, heroin addicts or anyone who
has killed a Latin King or his or her relative.

Also, any member "found guilty of being a traitor or police
collaborator shall . . . be expelled from the Nation."

As for Guajardo, being expelled from the gang was a given. During his
time as an informant, he was more worried about staying alive.

"If the Latin Kings knew I was cooperating, they would kill me," he
said.