CA - More Heat On Cervantes and Ciccone

OFF THE WIRE
The Cavazos brothers continue to shout back at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Former Mongol Motorcycle Club member Alvaro “Al The Suit” Cavazos and his brother, former Mongols President Ruben “Doc “Cavazos, were both quoted in a feature story that ran in three Los Angeles newspapers Sunday. Neither man is currently a member of the club.
The newspapers are the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, Pasadena Star-News and Whittier Daily News. They are collectively called the Pasadena Newspaper Group and they have a combined Sunday circulation of 319,000. The story was written by Tribune Metro Editor Frank Girardot. You can read it here.
Fast And Furious
Girardot links alleged ATF corruption in the Mongols case to alleged ATF corruption in what is usually called “Operation Fast and Furious.” Fast and Furious was an ATF scheme to enforce the law by breaking it. As a result, the ATF allowed the shipment of thousands of American firearms into Mexico where they were used by narcotics traffickers.
This instance of apparent ATF corruption became a national story after one of the guns the ATF allowed into Mexico was linked the murder of a Border Patrol Agent named Brian Terry. Last month, a Congressional Committee led by Representative Darrell Issa recommended that Eric Holder, the Attorney General of the United States, be held in contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over secret ATF documents. Last week, the House of Representatives did find Holder in contempt. It is the first time in United States history that an Attorney General has been charged with Congressional Contempt. Terry’s family is also suing the government over the agent’s death.
Al Cavazos (photo above) equates that instance of ATF corruption with several incidents that occurred during the ATF investigation of the Mongols called Operation Black Rain. “I’ve sent a letter to the Terry family explaining my issues with the ATF,” Girardot quotes Al Cavazos as saying. “My situation ain’t as bad as theirs – she lost a son – but we have to do something to stop the government from lying.”
Nicolas
Girardot indirectly quotes the two Cavazos brothers as saying that the Mongols racketeering indictment “relied on false testimony from Montebello police Sergeant Chris Cervantes and his partner, ATF agent John Ciccone.” Girardot references a shooting that occurred during Black Rain at a topless bar called Nicola’s on April 8, 2007. The Aging Rebel published a brief account of that shooting (linked here) last December 19.
During that incident, according to witnesses, ATF Special Agent John Ciccone and ATF Tactical Field Officer Chris Cervantes cynically stood by and watched as a gunfight erupted. That gunfight was then used to prove that the Mongols is a criminal racket. Cervantes is a former Los Angeles Police gang investigator and a current Montebello, California cop.
Girardot states, “The shooting and its aftermath played a large role in the ATF’s case against members of the group.”
Pressuring Doc To Cooperate
The story also directly quotes Doc Cavazos. For three years, there was widespread speculation that Doc Cavazos was informing on Mongols in order in order to get a lighter sentence. The Department of Justice encouraged that speculation in order to coerce defendants in the case and their court appointed attorneys into making plea deals instead of fighting to prove their innocence in court. Federal District Judge Otis D. Wright secretly sentenced Doc Cavazos to a stiff 14 year sentence last September. Cavazos has told this page that he did not inform on his former club brothers and that Judge Wright held the sentencing hearing in camera in order to portray Cavazos as a cooperative witness.
The Aging Rebel has been told by informed sources that the sentencing hearing was held in secret to specifically prevent this page from reporting the sentence. During the last four years there have been numerous incidents in which Justice Department officials and federal judges have forbidden accused men from talking to this page. This official shunning is not peculiar to the Mongols. For example, Federal District Judge Jacqueline Hong-Ngoc Nguyen has warned former Hells Angel George Christie not to talk to this page while his legal battle in her court is ongoing.
The length of Doc Cavazos’ sentence was leaked to Associated Press reporter Greg Risling. Risling reported that Cavazos’ sentence was “light.” This press manipulation and propagandizing is typical of virtually every federal undercover operation and the federal court cases that follow those investigations.
After sentencing, Doc Cavazos was incarcerated in the Corrections Corporation of America operated California City Correctional Center. After The Aging Rebel reported Doc Cavazos’ location earlier this year the former Mongols president was transferred to Federal Correctional Institution La Tuna in Anthony, Texas near El Paso.
In yesterday’s story, Girardot reported: “In order to get him to cooperate with the ATF, Ruben says authorities placed him in the general population of the La Tuna Correctional Facility and hinted to other prisoners that he’s a snitch.”
He directly quoted Doc Cavazos as saying, “The government is hoping that I would ask for safety in return for – if not cooperation – at least my silence when it comes to my criticism/exposure of the ATFs corruption. I would rather die than lie for the ATF.”