MEXICAN MAFIA LEADER CONVICTED OF MURDERS, DRUG CRIMES

LOS ANGELES -- A man reputed to be the Mexican Mafia's highest-ranking Los
Angeles leader was convicted yesterday of orchestrating three murders and
ordering the killings of eight people.

Mariano "Chuy" Martinez, 42, could be the first person in 51 years to face
the death penalty after a federal court conviction in Los Angeles. The same
jury on Feb. 21 will begin hearing evidence on whether he should be
executed or sentenced to life in prison. That hearing could take a month,
and the judge is bound by the jury's decision.

The jury deliberated 26 days before returning guilty verdicts on 24 of 25
counts. The convictions included murder, conspiracy to murder, racketeering
and conspiracy to distribute drugs in prison. He was acquitted on a count
of conspiracy to murder.

Martinez family members gasped and sobbed when the verdict was read.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys refused to comment after the verdict,
noting that the jury still had evidence to consider and the case wasn't over.

Martinez was one of 43 Mexican Mafia members and associates indicted by
federal authorities in 1999.

For the last five years, federal prosecutors here have been using
racketeering laws to crack down on the fratricidal prison gang known as "La
Eme" -- for the phonetic Spanish pronunciation of the letter "M."

The gang was formed more than 40 years ago when inmates from several East
Los Angeles barrios formed a "gang of gangs" intended to protect Latinos.
But in the charges federal prosecutors filed, Mexican Mafia members seem to
need protection from each other.

During the trial, prosecutors contended that the beefy, bald, mustachioed
Martinez reported directly to the gang's "godfather," Benjamin Peters, who
is serving a life prison at super-maximum Pelican Bay State Prison in
Northern California.

As in other cases against the gang, prosecutors accused Martinez and others
of extorting money or "taxes" -- typically a percentage of drug sales --
from neighborhood street gangs throughout Southern California.

If gang members weren't cooperative, they were targeted for attacks on the
streets or behind bars, in a practice known as "green-lighting."

Prosecutors played jurors nearly 400 secretly recorded telephone
conversations. On some of those tapes, jurors could hear Martinez ordering
"green lights" on targets.

The most serious allegation against him involved the November 1998 slaying
of three men at an automobile body shop in Montebello.

Prosecutors said the shooting stemmed from a power struggle between
Martinez and another Mexican Mafia leader, John Turscak.

On the trial wiretaps, Martinez also could be heard talking about a "peace
program" that he supported to end drive-by shootings among Latino gangs.

Prosecutors contended that his peace push was actually his way of trying to
get gang members to focus more on selling drugs and less on shooting at
each other.