Alleged hit man for Mexican cartel among nine arrested in Bell Gardens gang sweep

Nine members and associates of a Bell Gardens street gang, including a suspected hit man for a Mexican drug cartel, have been arrested on drug trafficking and weapons charges, federal officials said today.

The suspects -- six U.S. citizens and three illegal Mexican immigrants -- were arrested Thursday as agents served search warrants in Bell Gardens and Los Angeles, officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. 

Several assault weapons, including an AK-47 assault rifle, a Tec-9 submachine gun, a MAC-11 submachine gun and a sawed-off shotgun along with thousands of rounds of ammunition were also recovered.

"This is a relatively small and newer gang that has been operating with impunity for the last several years," said Kevin Kozak, deputy special agent in charge of ICE's local office of investigations. "They have access to significant weapons ... and claims they can have access to military grade weapons through a 'friend' in the military."

One of the suspects, Henry “Silent” Valenzuela, 27, of Bell Gardens, told an ICE undercover investigator that he is a hit man for a Tijuana-based drug cartel, officials said.

The arrests culminated a nine-month investigation of the Barrio Evil 13 street gang by ICE, which was assisted in the arrests by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Bell, Huntington Park, Vernon and Long Beach police departments. 

"This is an ongoing investigation," Kozak said. "We are concerned about the source origin of these weapons and the distribution network. The size of their stockpile implies that they were supplying other gangs."

-- Ching-Ching Ni

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Comments

[thecanimalshusband]

This appears to be racial profiling.

[Dave]

The civilian semi-auto AK-47 is not an assault rifle. Assault rifles are full-auto and strictly controlled items.

The TEC-9 (all caps) is not a sub-machine gun. Sub-machine guns, like all machine guns, are full-auto firearms. The TEC-9 is a semi-auto pistol, not much different an most 9 mm pistols like those made by Beretta, Taurus, Walther, Springfield, Smith & Wesson, etc.

That illegal possession of an NFA Title II (AKA class III) firearm IOW a machine gun, is not listed among the charges means the claim that any of these firearms are assult rifles or sub-machine guns is likely bogus.

[frank carter]

Good and bad, all these guys arrested and later will be released and sent back to Mexico to start where they left off, not too smart..its just a merry go around...I say put them away until there to old or help them in their bns.....but don't send them back to mexico for god sake....

[Sancho]

Bell, Bell Gardens, Huntington Park, South Gate, and now Downey are all cities that are third world, chaos ridden slums where Mexican Cartel hitmen can hide with virtual inpunity. No one to stop them from coming back and forth. Thank you Mexico for your human waste and thank you United States for allowing it.