SAN ANTONIO – In the nearly three decades law enforcement has been targeting the Texas Mexican Mafia, one thing has made pinning charges to members easy: a paper trail.
"They take minutes just like in a corporate board meeting. They have people, secretaries, take minutes. They approve the minutes. There are certain things that don't get put down on paper, but there are things where you want to have a clear understanding of what's going on and that'll be written down," said Gabe Morales, an expert on the Mexican Mafia.
One of the first big cases against the gang's high-ranking members was in the late 1990s.
A federal indictment against then general Robert "Beaver" Perez said he and other members of the gang corresponded by letter. Their writings were often copied and sent to other members behind bars.
Investigators found the letters at various locations in San Antonio. A home on West Craig contained letters detailing the gang's power struggle after president Herb Huerta gave a woman known as La Princessa a leadership role. There were letters at Perez's home on Arbor Spring and a storage unit on North General McMullen. One of them called Huerta's decision a "grave mistake."
Jailed members also wrote about their dissatisfaction with how little of the street tax being collected for drug sales was reaching their prison bank accounts.
The gang members have also written in code, as detailed in the indictment:
"As fall turned to winter in San Antonio, (one member's) day in the sun also drew to an end. Correspondence suggested that a ‘mechanic' was being contacted to beat (the member's) racing team – a thinly veiled reference to the planned murder of (the member)."
Just last year, Bexar County sheriff's narcotics officers found a ledger during a drug investigation. The ledger reportedly contained the names of Mexican Mafia members and associates. An affidavit said Julian Pesina, an officer with the Balcones Heights Police Department, was listed in the ledger. He was murdered a few days after the document was found. His murder, law enforcement sources have said, was related to the Mexican Mafia.
"They want to make sure they know who the made members are and who's the bad members, members in bad standing," Morales said. "Those people appear on rosters, on hit lists, if they're bad. If they're on the good list, they're basically untouchable."
Not all of the gang's communications are written.
"A lot of times they'll have visitors come up, they're doing it verbally or by hand signs. That's one of the reasons gangs invented hand signs, to communicate. They know sign language," Morales said.