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CON Pet eta et PRAT OMG AAT RENE RIA Vat nt SANNA LIAN UNL gM ONTO A tnt ae Nett At oh et RATE EARN ANE EME S A. 2? ® That’s because Soledad is rec- ognized as the NF. The “Mexican Mafia," m urban in its membership, ha spread into Washington state, Arizona, New Mexico, Michigan and even New York State. Authorities hesitate to guess at its total membership, but “conservative” estimates of the Mafia’s membership in Califor- nia top 1,000. Sometimes known as “Eme,” pronounced “Em- ay” it holds control of San intin and Folsora, e@ Eme and NF consider Chino and San Luis Obispo as kind of neutral territory. Both organizations have issued orders for their prison soldiers to kill merobers of their opposition on sight, a move that has Jed prison authorities to try to avoid as- & gang member to an in- stifution controlled by a rival. “Gt's tough to do,” one prison official said. “You have to cate- gorize'a man as a possible Fam- ily or Mafla member. If you ca- tegorize him wrong, you are sending him to his death.” Since both organizations have patterned themselves after the “Cosa Nostra,” that death will | that correctional officials admait be killing by.a gang member wholhas been ordered to murder i mer. If gang member refuses 3 to carry out his assfgnment, lead- ers “put out a contract” for his life and have him killed. The lawman “Mext- adquarters of—gan “Mafia” didn't have the fi- nesse of the older “Cosa Noag- tra,” bat “it makes up for any lack of sophistication with b tality. They’re a cold-blo (ry iad Lawmen feel the apparent victory over the Mafia has giv- en the gang an expansionist mood and that’s why they are looking to the San Jose area for . new territory. Conflict is not new between the two groups. In 1966, “Nuestra Famt was formed during a meetingjat Palm Hall at the California stitution for Men at Chino. Since then, there have been stabbings, eXecutions and one incident in November of 1968 in which soldiers of the two rival gangs clashed io an all-out bat- tle inside San Quentin. Seven- teen convicts were hospitalized. During a two-year period, 57 ‘persons were murdered and 500 stabbed in prison. This yeast to date, there have been nine Hill- ings and 22 stabbings at a le institution. That prison, Deuel Vocational Institution, is one of the prisons is controlled by “Nuestra Fami- lta,” smatier of the two Chicano. gangs. rs State Senate investigators have identified the top man, or “Nuestro General,” of the N¥ as Robert (Babo) Sosa, an ex-con- vict who lives in San Diego. Although the NF constitution — a handwritten document that was smuggled from prison to prison — says the gang shall be headed by someone in p' Jawmen believe Sosa has :re- tained control. If the constitu- tion were followed, the mantle of auth would rest “on “Death Row” Joe Gonzales, a Soledad inmate. 158