Multiple media sources, including FOX News, report that 13 people have been indicted and eight more have been arrested after an investigation uncovered  "an alliance between members of a California prison gang and a Mexican drug cartel." The alliance allegedly involved methamphetamine and marijuana distribution in Southern California.  Most of the indictments involved residents of Los Angeles and San Diego Counties.

The so-called "drug cartel" La Familia Michoacána (commonly known as "La Familia") was allegedly allied with the prison gang referred to as the Mexican Mafia. The indictment identifies the Mexican Mafia as a highly influential gang "that controls the drug trade and other criminal activities within California state prisons, county jails, and federal penitentiaries. Its members are generally senior members of Latino street gangs, and the Mexican Mafia also allegedly exercises control over the narcotics trafficking activities of the gangs in Southern California" according to the FOX News story.

This case may be extremely complex because it will likely include criminal charges related to RICO, fraud, and other conspiracy charges that are often included when suspects associated with large criminal organizations are involved. Federal, state and international law may also be at issue. The criminal defense attorneys tasked with defending the suspects will have the entire weight of the federal government allied against them and the public, politicians, law enforcement authorities and prosecutors may treat the suspects as if they are already guilty. The constitutional rights of the suspects must be defended despite the zeal of the law enforcement apparatus to appear tough on crime in their ongoing war against the Mexican Mafia.