SNM credo: ‘Blood in, blood out’
FBI: Prison gang expected loyalty for life; trial wraps up
The Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang was born behind the walls of the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe 38 years ago.
But in the latest federal criminal racketeering trial of seven of its alleged members, all but one of the defendants was out on the streets when arrested.
Prosecutors allege that all seven gang members had literally gotten away with murder in cases originally investigated by New Mexico State Police as far back as 2001.
The defendants face federal charges of murder, attempted murder and witness intimidation to further the gang’s criminal racketeering enterprise.
Beginning this week, jurors who have listened to six weeks of trial testimony in a Las Cruces courtroom are expected to begin deliberations in the case.
The crimes: three unsolved prison murders, an assault and attempted murder of a witness in the federal SNM case; and the shooting death of a Los Lunas area man found handcuffed and on fire behind his torched car near the Rio Grande in 2012.
To convict the men of racketeering, the jury must conclude that they committed the underlying violent crimes to increase or maintain their position within the SNM. If convicted of murder in furtherance of SNM racketeering, they face life in prison.
The defendants include two brothers, Joe Lawrence Gallegos and Andrew “Smiley” Gallegos; along with Edward Troup, Billy Garcia, Allen Patterson, Christopher Chavez, and Arturo Arnulfo Garcia.
All have pleaded not guilty and have court-appointed lawyers.
Several defendants deny any affiliation with the SNM gang, which at one time boasted as many as 500 members and formed after the deadly 1980 prison riot at the state penitentiary.
Defense attorneys contend that “a murderers’ row” of cooperating prosecution witnesses — some who have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing in the case — cannot be believed.
The evidence is circumstantial, defense attorneys say, with no DNA or other physical evidence tying their clients to the crimes.
On March 28, the first trial of four other defendants, including the alleged leader of the SNM, ended with one acquittal and three guilty verdicts involving the 2014 murder of an SNM gang member inmate at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility and a conspiracy to murder two top state Corrections officials in 2015.
Testimony in the current trial, which began in early April with U.S. District Judge James Browning presiding, underscored the influence of the gang beyond prison walls.
Of the 100-plus people charged with federal and/or state crimes during a threeyear FBI investigation into SNM dubbed “Operation Atonement,” nearly 70 percent were on the streets, federal court records show. Some were on parole, while others were on probation or pre-trial release awaiting trial on state charges. Despite their freedom, they were still very much a part of the prison gang, prosecutors have alleged.
Prosecutors say that, just because an SNM member finishes his sentence and is released from prison, doesn’t mean his membership ends. According to a federal search warrant affidavit, former prisoners are still expected to keep ties with the gang, sometimes being required to smuggle drugs into prison or elsewhere.
“Once you are an SNM gang member, you are a member for life; blood in, blood out...” stated one FBI affidavit.
In an earlier court proceeding, Gerald “Styx” Archuleta, a former leader of SNM who left New Mexico seven years ago, testified that he relocated to Tennessee.
“I was expected to keep in touch with the “S,” send money to the brothers, and assist in any way I can,” said Archuleta, who was a prosecution witness and is pending sentencing in the SNM case. “When I got out in 2011, I had already distanced myself from the “S,” because I basically wanted something better for myself and my son.” However, he testified, a SNM member sent him the drug Suboxone in Tennessee, and Archuleta sent nearly $2,400 to the inmate’s prison account as payment.
Elizabeth Martinez, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Mexico, told the Journal that closing arguments in the trial are set for Monday and Tuesday.
But neither she nor FBI spokesman Frank Fisher would respond to Journal questions about the case, citing Justice Department policy. Neither would say whether the SNM investigation is ongoing.
Four murders
In the current trial, testimony has focused on four murders and a machete attack against a potential witness in the SNM case.
Six of the seven defendants now on trial were arrested in Albuquerque, Los Chavez near Belen, Silver City and Denver, Colo., federal court records show.
Some defense attorneys contend that their clients, if they had been affiliated with SNM, were released from prison years ago, and left the gang lifestyle behind. Others deny SNM membership.
In the case of defendant Allen Patterson, his attorney, Jeff Lahann, stated in one court motion that his client “has lived a life relatively free from crime” and “neither of the crimes for which he was imprisoned, attempted murder and DWI, involved prison gang activity.”
The Gallegos brothers are charged in the shooting death of heroin dealer Adrian Burns, more than five years after a Socorro magistrate judge found a lack of probable cause and the charges were dropped.
The original charges were filed in November 2012 by State Police, but additional witnesses were located after the dismissal.
Gallegos’ attorneys maintained in federal court records that state authorities back in 2012 had determined that ++++the Burns’ murder wasn’t gang related.
Joe Gallegos is also charged in the March 26, 2001, murder of Frank Castillo, along with four other defendants.
Castillo and fellow inmate Rolando Garza were strangled to death on the same day, at the same hour, in separate areas of the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility outside Las Cruces. The deadly attacks were orchestrated by SNM leaders, prosecutors say.