Mexican Mafia Underlings Who Tried to Stamp out Black People from Azusa in Suburban L.A. Get 10 and 20 Years in Prison

Courtesy of guv'nor

In Azusa, black residents were menaced by tattooed Latino thugs as they shopped.

A vicious, racist, father-and-son thug team tight with the Mexican Mafia, Santiago "Chico'' Rios and his deaf adult son Louis "Lil' Chico" Rios, have been sentenced to long prison terms for pouring drugs into and out of suburban Azusa -- and making it their No. 1 duty to "cleans[e] African-Americans out of the city.''

In a big win for gang detectives, the bigoted, drug-peddling Rios, 48, got 20 years in federal prison and his equally noxious son, 22, got 10 years. The pair roamed Azusa scaring the bejesus out of people, with their faces, heads and necks tattooed with "Azusa.'' In court, they were bedecked in chains:

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Azusa may win its peace back.

According to City News Service:

When he pleaded guilty, the elder Rios admitted that the gang had the goal of the cleansing Azusa of blacks. He also admitted that, in order to drive blacks out of the city, he and other members of the gang threatened, intimidated and attacked blacks at their homes, on the streets, at convenience stores and elsewhere, because of their race.

Federal Judge Gary A. Feess, who sentenced the father-son pair, said the gang's number one motive was "the cleansing of African-Americans out of the city of Azusa.''

Will troubled Azusa have a chance, now, to return to some semblance of normalcy, especially for its black residents who never knew when the nasty Rios bunch would descend upon them while they innocently tried to shop and live their lives?

It looks good for Azusa to turn the corner, actually.

In 2011, a Los Angeles federal grand jury indicted 51 members and associates of Azusa 13, slapping them with charges including conspiracy to violate the civil rights of blacks, and violating RICO. According to Asst. U.S. Attorney Reema El-Amamy, they all pleaded guilty and all but 10 have been sentenced.

That was thanks to some very nifty police work by gang detectives, who probably wondered if the Ku Klux Klan-style Azusa 13 gangsters thought they could continue their anti-black pogrom with impunity.

Sadly, the thugs may have successfully driven some blacks out of heavily Latino Azusa.

According to the U.S. Census in 2000, 3.78% of the population of Azusa was black.

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What banker Slauson looked out upon, in 1888.

But by 2010, 1,499 blacks lived in Azusa, or just 3.2% of the city population.

The once-idyllic town was founded by Jonathan S. Slauson in 1888, who drew up plans for the community at the entrance to San Gabriel Canyon.

Los Angeles banker Slauson never imagined that, more than 100 years later, Mexican Mafia gangs would control some of its streets.