Lead investigator gets prison gang trial started
Informants helped FBI infiltrate the syndicate
LAS CRUCES — The FBI agent who led the racketeering investigation of the Sindicato Nuevo Mexico prison gang was the government’s first witness in the trial of four gang members.
FBI Special Agent Bryan Acee testified most of Wednesday about techniques to infiltrate the gang in and outside the prison, using members turned confidential informants.
Acee said that as part of his investigation he accompanied parole officers to get access to gang members’ cases “looking for their vulnerabilities” or violations that might lead them to cooperate in investigations of the Sindicato de Nuevo Mexico’s activities. Several of those informants “wore wires” for the government.
He also visited all of the state’s prisons and learned of gang member Eric Duran’s willingness to be an informant at the penitentiary in northern New Mexico where he was given a secret cellphone and recording device. Duran’s cell was located next to purported gang leader Anthony Ray Baca.
Acee testified that the informant dialed and held the cellphone up to the cell vent so Baca could talk to gang members outside the prison.
The FBI agent credited those recordings, and others of gang members in and outside the prison, with helping the FBI build the racketeering case detailing drug deals, firearms trafficking, car jacking, armed robbery and intimidation of witnesses.
During opening arguments, Baca’s attorney Marc Lowry told jurors his client was not the leader of the Sindicato de Nuevo Mexico gang anymore, that over the years he had become like a “village elder” for inmates, but, when he was sent to a prison out of state, fell out of favor with the gang.
He said Duran, the informant, con-
trolled when the recording device was on and when it was shut off. He said the conversation about killing two top New Mexico prison officials was instigated by Duran after the device had been off for several days.
“This idea didn’t come from Mr. Baca. It came from Eric Duran,” said Lowry.
On the first day of the trial, the jury also got a crash course in gang tattoos. Federal prosecutor Rudy Castellano showed photos of the four defendants in court and asked FBI agent Acee to explain the tattoos.
Several of the men had the Zia symbol tattooed in strategic places like elbows and knees. Daniel Sanchez’s photo showed his hometown, Belen, tattooed on the back of his neck. Baca has a small Zia under his left eye and “Duke City” tattooed across his chest. His upper body and back are covered in tattoos. Most were not visible since he wore a dark grey suit and tie. At least half a dozen U.S. Marshalls, also dressed in suits, were strategically seated near the doorways and defendants.
The trial in U.S. District Judge James Browning’s court is expected to last four weeks.