Thread by @TommyLopezTV

A bombshell regarding crime in Albuquerque: Federal court documents reveal new details on extensive gang activity, including murders and millions of dollars in drugs trafficked in the city. We have not seen a synthesized breakdown like this.

A thread 🧵 👇🏻

This comes from a news conference and a federal court filing of more than 100 pages Friday. Federal prosecutors describe an ongoing seven-year investigation into multiple gangs.

The investigation has led to dozens of arrests and truckloads of drugs taken off the streets, most recently Thursday, when a massive FBI-led raid targeted gang activity.

It led to five arrests and hundreds of pounds in drugs taken in Albuquerque. Many of the efforts were in the South Valley.

Today, investigators revealed the main target of the recent raid, 40-year-old Jesse Young, who also goes by Lobo. He has 21 prior arrests in New Mexico. He’s now facing decades in federal prison.

From Lobo alone, the task force took a million fentanyl pills, which is more than 200 pounds of the deadly drug, they seized more than 140 pounds of meth, they took 37 guns and millions in cash at the home he was living in on Atrisco Drive.

Federal agents said the raid was a big hit to the two gangs they’re focusing on, gangs which they said have a decades-long history of murder, kidnapping and pumping millions of dollars of drugs into the city.

The two gangs are:

The Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico, a prison gang abbreviated SNM.

The Sureños, Spanish for southerners, which started in southern California.

Federal court documents gave new insight into how they operate and what crimes members may have committed, including recent murders, and how extensive the operation is to combat them.

In the documents, federal prosecutors said there are hundreds of active gang members in Albuquerque and informants tell the FBI some have killed multiple people.

Gang members are “plotting to … murdering witnesses and informants.” They “bury evidence underground.” They use “stash houses” and “covert communications,” and they coordinate actions with members in prison.

The feds said this FBI-led investigation has been disrupting the gang’s activity over the last seven years, as hundreds of members in Albuquerque have been arrested and at least 11 local murders have been pinned on members.

Plus, a plot to murder former state Secretary of Corrections Gregg Marcantel was thwarted in 2015.

Investigators say they’ve used 22 confidential informants, who are all members of these gangs.

The feds have tied at least five local murders in the last two years to these gangs.

The most recent was Aug. 7 when someone shot and killed a fellow gang member in an apartment.

Plus, the feds think Young, aka Lobo, killed two brothers he believed were working with the feds, burning their bodies in a car on the West Mesa in 2012.

Many of these suspects came from California because “New Mexico was an easy place to live… and be us,” according to court documents. Informants say gang members have said the Land of Enchantment has looser laws and a lower cost of living compared to the Golden State.

The federal court documents show there’s now a partnership between SNM and the Sureños, as they are working together to try to kill informants. The efforts are described as coordinated, mutual interests that have strengthened both groups in the past few years.