In 1989, Ronaldo Ayala was sentenced to death for killing three men at a San Diego auto repair shop.
Instead of facing the gas chamber at San Quentin, a respected member of the Mexican Mafia turned the list into a powerhouse, say law enforcement authorities and gangs, collecting bribes for prostitution, drug trafficking and organizing acts of violence through a vast network of underlings. San Diego to Seattle.
Ayala, 74, now faces fraud charges brought by federal prosecutors in Sacramento, who say the National City native conspired with Sinaloa cartel members to distribute methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl in the western United States.
Ayala, who was moved last year from San Quentin to Centinela County Prison as Gov. Gavin Newsom closed death row, has yet to enter his plea. It was not clear Friday if he was represented by an attorney.
Ronaldo Ayala has been held on San Quentin's death row for thirty years.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
In charges unsealed Friday, prosecutors allege Ayala oversaw ties between the Mexican Mafia and the Sinaloa cartel, Mexico's most powerful drug-trafficking group, and protected its former leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
It is not clear from the charges against him whether Guzman accepts – or will require – a plea deal. The former kingpin is serving a life sentence at ADX Florence, a maximum-security state prison in Colorado where he has no contact with other inmates.
San Diego has produced many members of the Mexican Mafia, but none as powerful as Ayala, a witness told FBI agents in 2023.
The witness – alleged to be Ayala's liaison with gang members in the San Diego area – pleaded guilty to drug trafficking charges and received a lengthy prison sentence.
According to a transcript of a witness interview with the FBI, Ayala filmed the San Diego area with two other suspected Mexican Mafia members, his brother Hector and Richard Buchanan.
Buchanan controlled the eastern side of San Diego and most of its South Bay. Ayala's brother found North County and Chula Vista. Ronaldo Ayala had Spring Valley, Paradise Hills, National City and “everything else,” he said.
“At the end of the day,” he told the ambassadors, “this is Ronnie's town.”
According to witnesses, Ayala also collected a regular payment called “simple debt” from the San Diego County jail system, which he split with his brother and Buchanan. All modules in the prison system were supposed to withdraw $50 a month through CashApp, the woman told agents.
Ayala's subordinates run separate rackets, he said. Others buy methamphetamine in Tijuana and ship it to San Bernardino or Texas. Others ran casitas – illegal gambling dens – or “trap houses” where people can buy and use drugs, according to witnesses.
San Diego County prosecutors indicted seven people in 2022 for operating a foreclosed house in the Encanto area of Ayala. His representative in San Ysidro, Juan “Sleepy” Castro, oversaw moneylending and human trafficking in addition to selling drugs, prosecutors wrote in court papers. Castro was sentenced in 2023 to 10 years in prison for trafficking methamphetamine.
Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán after his capture in Mexico in 2014.
(Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press)
Because he was incarcerated with gang members from across California, Ayala reached beyond San Diego, a witness told the FBI.
According to the indictment made public this week, Ayala collected “taxes” in Riverside, Sacramento, San Francisco and even Seattle, where prosecutors say gang members working under Ayala destroyed the singer who said in a music video he was with the “mafia”. ” commitments.
Two respected members of the Seattle band United Lokotes, Samuel “Payaso” Morales and Alexis “Menace” Rodriguez, were also accused of defrauding the unnamed artist whose property was set on fire.
Helping Ayala collect “taxes” on drug sales from the Sinaloa cartel was Angel “Snappy” Esparza, who was sentenced to death for killing three people in Riverside County, the charges against him.
Ronald “Temper” Sepulveda, whom Ayala called “our biggest supporter,” oversaw the affairs of a respected Mexican Mafia member in Riverside County, including extorting musicians, prosecutors said.
Allen “Frankie Chino” Fong, a San José gang member serving a 17-year sentence for assault, is charged with collecting Ayala's “taxes” while incarcerated at the state prison in Solano.
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