LOS ANGELES, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Fourteen defendants have been charged for allegedly assaulting inmates in Los Angeles County jails on the orders of the Mexican Mafia prison gang, authorities said on Friday.
A series of assaults were allegedly being directed by "facilitators" of the Mexican Mafia prison gang from outside of prison walls. Mafia "facilitators" relayed orders to the so-called "Surenos" or "soldiers" who were already in the LA county jail system, to assault or kill other inmates that were perceived to have violated Mexican Mafia rules, according to a joint news release of the FBI, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
"In one case, prosecutors allege, an individual whom the Mexican Mafia believed to be cooperating with law enforcement was stabbed several times in the head and upper torso after a Mexican Mafia associate allegedly gave an order for the individual to be murdered," according to the news release.
Twelve of the defendants charged in the case were already incarcerated in LA County jails and the remaining two were taken into custody on Thursday from their places of residence.
The investigation into the violence within LA County jails began in July of 2016 by the FBI's San Gabriel Valley Safe Streets Task Force.
