the texas mexican mafia. and rose to a high ranking in the gang. i had the power to order hits, i had power to do a lot of stuff. i didn t believe in, how can i say this, physical violence, i believed, you know, when it comes to another gang, why not beat them psychologically? why not plan this information? for example, victor says in prison, he was once housed next door to a member of a rival gang. using a method called fishing in which inmates used string to pass items from cell to cell, victor put his plan into place. he would attempt to fish a magazine with a note inside to a nearby mexican mafia member. i would call to my gang brother, two cells down and i would purposely miss his cell for the magazine to land in the next guy s cell so he could get it, because that s what i wanted him to do. in the note victor falsely written a particular inmate in the rival gang was really a member of the mexican mafia. and, of course, he would
we did meet some inmates willing to talk. they were in a special protective custody unit for gang members who had had enough. the ex-gang unit was night and day different than any of the active units we had been to. the inmates had a sense of relief that getting out of the gang provided them, and it showed. the ex-gang unit is the only place where those affiliated with warring gangs live together peacefully. but they re fully aware their decisions to leave their gangs carry consequences that could follow them forever. we always tell any ex-member of any major prison gang, your life is in danger. there is somebody out to get you. it is going to happen. just remember that you were part of a criminal enterprise and you left it, and there is by their bylaws a hit on you. that s the way it goes. you re in it for life or you re dead, you know, there s no there s no way out of it. victor, who requested we only use his first name for security
we ask them to try to identify their items because we have this type of activities that occur and that s very good, okay? three guys actually went to the hole, but we did not get all of his commissary back. a lot of time when this type of thing happen, when they hit a cell, they try to use as much as they can to get rid of the evidence. concerned about possible gang retaliation, staff decided to move him to a new unit to protect his safety. but he says the risk was worth it. in fact, he welcomed it. a little part inside of me was setting these guys up. i m sick of them treating us like we re weak. i knew they were going to steal this. i left my door open and everything, act like i wasn t watching my door. guys stole my stuff and they got caught. i mean they got what was coming for them. coming up we re getting involved with the kind of thing that we would usually be filming. the lockup field team finds itself in the middle of a
during our shoot at san antonio s bexar county jail, we did meet some inmates willing to talk. they were in a special protective custody unit for gang members who had had enough. the ex-gang unit was night and day different than any of the active units we had been to. the inmates had a sense of relief that getting out of the gang provided them, and it showed. the ex-gang unit is the only place where those affiliated with warring gangs live together peacefully. but they re fully aware their decisions to leave their gangs carry consequences that could follow them forever. we always tell any ex-member of any major prison gang, your life is in danger. there is somebody out to get you. it is going to happen. just remember that you were part of a criminal enterprise and you left it, and there is by their bylaws a hit on you. that s the way it goes. you re in it for life or you re dead, you know, there s no there s no way out of it. victor, who requested we only
he will also be called sometimes to testify against them in court. i do have to testify on a lot of not only just gang members, but high-ranking gang members for very heinous crimes and at the end of the day i still have to go home and be with my family and live a completely different life than the life i m living here. i ve run into many gang members outside the facility. i ve had death threats against me or i ve had these guys saying that they re going to get me. i ve had guys even attack me before. but i m a peace officer, i m always carry, i don t go home the same way every day. in the end, i m still here. i m not going anywhere. i love what i do. i cross my fingers. to me it s part of the job. i love it.