ALLEGED MEMBERS OF TEXAS MEXICAN MAFIA ARRESTED

Eight men named in racketeering indictment

SAN ANTONIO (AP) -- Authorities arrested eight alleged members of the Texas
Mexican Mafia on Monday, charging them in a string of drug-related crimes,
including at least 13 murders.

A racketeering indictment unsealed Monday accuses the gang, also known as
the "Mexikanemi" or "La Eme" with robbery, extortion and drug dealing. The
allegations also include the August 1997 shotgun slayings of five people in
San Antonio.

Officials say the gang formed behind the walls of Texas prisons in the early
1980s.

"This indictment is not the first, nor will it be the last, to target
dangerous members of this criminal organization," said Bill Blagg, U.S.
attorney for the Western District of Texas.

Among those arrested was Robert "Beaver" Perez, 40, who is a reputed
"general" in the Mexican Mafia. Others picked up were: Robert "Robe" Herrera
Jr., 24; Jesse "Chango" Gomez, Jr., 28; Juan "Jon" Johns, 25; Martin
"Pancake" Ortegon, 30; Victor "Tito" PeF1a, 37; Michael Perez, 24; and Joe
"Yogi" Sandoval, 36.

Each is charged with a single racketeering conspiracy count, which carries a
possible life sentence.

Gomez and Robert De Los Santos, who has subsequently died, were specifically
accused of the largest mass murder in modern San Antonio history.

The bodies of 49-year-old Rodolfo Vara, his 19-year-old daughter, Elbira;
her fiance, Ricardo Gonzalez, 18; 19-year-old Chris Tobias and Edward Medel,
18, were discovered Aug. 8, 1997, amid the Vara's ransacked duplex.

The federal indictment says Gomez, De Los Santos and another suspect still
at large executed all five. Gomez and De Los Santos were part of a crew sent
to rob the house, the indictment says.

Six days later, Herrera and several other unnamed suspects choked, beat and
ran over De Los Santos with a car, the indictment says. Investigators say De
Los Santos was killed because he had been talking too freely about the
quintuple murder.

The case was investigated by the FBI, the San Antonio police department, the
Bexar County Sheriff's Office and the Bexar County District Attorney's
Office.

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett