High-ranking Ventura gang member linked to Mexican mafia sentenced to 13.5 years for drug trafficking
LOS ANGELES, Calif. – A high-ranking member of an Oxnard-based street gang was sentenced on Thursday to 13.5 years in prison for drug trafficking offenses and extorting "taxes" on behalf of a Mexican mafia prison gang.
Armando "Criminal" Molina, 39 of Ventura, was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and five counts of distribution of meth by a federal jury at the end of a four-day trial in September 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
He was arrested in November 2013 as part of a multi-agency task force investigation that targeted Mexican mafia-affiliated street gangs in Ventura County called "Operation Supernova." Molina is a high-ranking member of the Oxnard-based Surtown Chiques street gang, said Ciaran McEvoy, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles.
The federal complaint that Molina was arrested on targetted "shot callers" of Ventura County street gangs, and details a year-long undercover investigation while outlining a series of narcotics transactions that led to the seizure of more than two pounds of meth and quantities of heroin that were being sold on the streets.
The drugs were supplied by a drug trafficking organization that was controlled by Mexican mafia member called Martin Madrigal-Cazares, according to McEvoy. "Local street gangs communicated with the head of the organization in Mexico, while controlling narcotics sales and collecting 'taxes' on behalf of the Mexican Mafia in Ventura County," he explained.
Molina and his co-conspirators sold around 267 grams of pure methamphetamine to a confidential informant working for an FBI task force from October 2012 and March 2013.
“[Molina] was more than some street dealer doling out methamphetamine to addicts to make a buck,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Rather, he was a key member in a broader, more dangerous criminal enterprise that sought to dominate profitable criminal conduct over the Ventura County region.”
On the night before Molina's trial in 2019, co-defendant Frank Joshua "Villain" Ruiz, 40 of Ventura County, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute meth and was sentenced to just over 11 years in federal prison in February 2020.
