Indictment: Barrio Azteca Suspects Orchestrated Crimes While In Prisons

ABC-7 is digging deeper into the case against nearly three dozen suspected Barrio Azteca gang members.

FBI agents in El Paso released an indictment against 35 men and women in March, accusing them of orchestrating drug sales and ordering murders, including rhe killings of a U.S. Consulate employee in Ciudad Juarez and her husband.

The latest version of the indictment says some of the suspects planned and carried out criminal commands while they were inmates in the U.S. federal prison system.

For example in June 2010, one of the defendants that was already incarcerated is accused of placing a phone call to another defendant to discuss redirecting a drug shipment.

In July of that year, a similar incident occured when one inmate in a U.S. federal prison is alleged to have called an accomplice in Ciudad Juarez, according to investigators. The indictment says, “The incarcerated (Barrio Azteca) member directed the (Barrio Azteca) member in Juarez to shoot another person because he was a problem.”

The indictment said regular mail is another tool gang members use to keep business going as usual while they’re behind bars. It said inmates sometimes address letters to fake names and addresses to throw officials off as they’re corresponding about criminal activity.

A spokesman with the Federal Bureau of Prisons said officials monitor interactions between inmates and the outside world. He said officials open ingoing and outgoing mail unless that mail relates to their standing with the courts. He also said inmates are allowed to pay for telephone access that includes international phone calls. Inmates are allotted 300 minutes per month to use at their discretion. All personal phone calls are recorded, monitored and can be passed on to investigating agencies like the FBI. Those agencies can then decide when and how to step in if need be.