Officials say Mexican mafia member Danny Roman, 64, has been murdered at the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in the city of Corcoran.
Roman was stabbed multiple times on Wednesday by two fellow inmates. He was rushed to the prison hospital but died only a few minutes later.
Officials say the assaults were carried out by Raul Alvarado, 47, and Edward Cisneros, 31, by stabbing Roman in the body and face. Two weapons were discovered, and the assailants are being held in solitary confinement pending the investigation.
Raul Alvarado (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Roman had been in state prison since 1985 when as a former Latino street gang leader he was charged with first-degree murder.
In 2012, federal prosecutors alleged that two dozen people they had arrested and charged with racketeering conspiracy, were part of a south Los Angeles gang which Roman controlled from California’s Pelican Bay Supermax state prison.
Edward Cisneros (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
Although Roman wasn’t charged at the time, prosecutors accused him of managing at least a dozen gangs from behind bars. One of those gangs would shake-down vendors at a swap meet and another was involved in drug trafficking, robberies, and killings, focusing on students at the University of Southern California.
At the time, prosecutors speculated that Roman’s daughter and son-in-law were involved in a scheme where Roman would tell orders and information to them, and they would then give those orders to the gang members.
In 2015, a federal investigation named “Operation Roman Empire” ended with Roman’s daughter being sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
