EL PASO -- Some high-ranking members of the Barrio Azteca gang have quit, an indication that notorious gang is in disarray after repeated crackdowns by law enforcement, El Paso County sheriff's gang intelligence officers said Tuesday.

"They are in chaos. They are still trying to find out who talked to who," said Detective Jeff Gibson, who has tracked the gang for over a decade.

The El Paso-based prison gang will be the subject of an episode of the History Channel TV series "Gangland" on Thursday.

The Barrio Azteca has been the dominant gang in El Paso for years but took heavy hits during the past year with federal investigations, which included tapping phones, intercepting coded letters and gang members turning informants. In April, gang leaders convicted in a racketeering case were sentenced to life in prison.

Investigators said the fallout created a rift of distrust within the Azteca's military-style hierarchy and a stream of defections.

As an example, the number of ex-gang members at the El Paso County Jail system has jumped from five or fewer in past years to about 19 during the past year, said Detention Officer Jose Soria of the gang intelligence squad. Ex-members are kept in separate cells to prevent violent reprisals.

Intelligence officers said defectors include a gang member who was identified in November in the racketeering trial as the person controlling operations on the streets of El Paso.

"They have been changing leadership every month," Soria said.

The TV show will take a look at how the gang was formed by El Pasoans in the Texas prison system in the 1980s.

"When they (BA) hooked their horse up with the cartel's cart, they evolved," Detective Gibson said. The gang, which is still the largest in area jails, is involved in drug smuggling, extortion, murders.

The TV show was filmed in March in the El PasoÐJuárez area and includes interviews with former gang members, the FBI and sheriff's gang intelligence squad.

Gibson, Sgt. Alberto Telles and Lt. James Nance formed the sheriff's gang intelligence squad in 1994. "We basically did it to know who we were dealing with," Telles said.

Earlier this year, Barrio Azteca members were the targets of federal investigations into cocaine trafficking rings in El Paso and Doña Ana County. In Juárez, the gang goes by the name Aztecas and has gained notoriety for igniting riots at the Cereso prison.


source : http://www.elpasotimes.com