Latino gang members charged with race-motivated crimes

Latino gang members charged with race-motivated crimes
Accused of violent 3-year campaign to drive African-American rivals from neighborhood

Federal prosecutors level racketeering and drug charges on more than 60 people who they say targeted African American rivals.

Federal prosecutors today charged members of the Latino Florencia 13 street gang with racially motivated crimes against African Americans, including several attempted homicides.

Authorities said the gang specifically tried to eliminate rival African American gangs in South L.A. and the Florence-Firestone area in an effort to "cleanse" the neighborhood. In doing so, they mistakenly harassed and attacked innocent African American residents, according to the indictment.

More than 60 members and associates of the Florencia 13 street gang were charged with federal racketeering and drug charges.

"In their attempt to intimidate African Americans in the community, they targeted innocent citizens," U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien said.

O'Brien said the arrests were the result of a nearly three-year investigation into the gang that culminated in federal indictments at the end of the summer.

The arrests come as both local and federal officials have launched a crackdown on race-motivated gang crime across L.A. Authorities have already filed charges against a different Latino gang in the Harbor Gateway area accused of crimes against African Americans, including the slaying of a teenage girl last year.

Gang crime has been dropping across Los Angeles over the last few years, but Police Chief William J. Bratton and other authorities have expressed concern about isolated instances of racially charged gang violence both on the streets and in L.A. County jails.

According to prosecutors, the defendants are named in two indictments: one that charges violations of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and another on charges of federal narcotics trafficking violations. The indictments were returned by a federal grand jury Sept. 27 and were unsealed this morning, authorities said.