The alleged leader of the Mexican Mafia was assassinated by two inmates at a California jail on Wednesday, according to prison officials.
Danny Roman, 64, was pronounced dead moments after he was stabbed multiple suffered multiple stab wounds in the face and body at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran.
Corrections department spokeswoman Terri Hardy said fellow inmates Raul Alvarado, 47, and Edward Cisneros, 31, carried out the killing.
Hardy would not say if both men are believed to be members of the same or a rival gang.
Roman's murder was the second homicide at the prison in a span of four days. Antonio Vasquez, 27, was found dead Saturday inside his jail cell. Prison officials placed his cellmate, Adrian Madrigal, in a separate cell away from the general population as part of the investigation
Danny Roman, the alleged leader of the Mexican Mafia, was killed by two inmates Wednesday at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison in Corcoran, Los Angeles. Roman was serving a life sentence for a 1985 first-degree murder conviction
Raul Alvarado (pictured) is one of two men who were placed in isolation after attacking Danny Roman, the purported leader of the Mexican Mafia
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ShareRoman was accused by the federal government of running South Los Angeles street gang operations from Pelican Bay State Prison, a super-maximum security facility and the most secured jail in California.
'If this was not a sanctioned Mexican Mafia hit, then the retaliation for having one of their members hit is going to be significant,' said retired prison gang investigator Matthew Buechner. 'So for the safety of all the other inmates, I don't wish to downplay Roman's demise, but hopefully it was internal housecleaning or there will be a lot more blood shed.'
In 2012, federal prosecutors charged more than two dozen people with racketeering conspiracy, alleging that they were involved with South Los Angeles gangs controlled by Roman.
He was serving a life sentence for a 1985 first-degree murder conviction from Los Angles County, 700 miles away.
Edward Cisneros (pictured), who is serving a life sentence for an attempted first-degree murder in San Bernardino County, is being investigated for the murder of Danny Roman
Danny Roman, who the federal government once accused of controlling several South Los Angeles street gangs from prison, was killed by two inmates Wednesday at the Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison (pictured) in Corcoran, California
Roman wasn't charged, but prosecutors said he was controlling a dozen gangs, including one that extorted vendors at a swap meet and another that targeted students at the University of Southern California in drug trafficking, killings and robberies.
They alleged that Roman was passing orders to his daughter and son-in-law, who in turn directed gang members.
Investigators said Vianna Roman used coded language to give information to her father and to get instructions from him during visits at the prison in far northwest California.
She would then pass them to members of the Harpys street gang, who prosecutors said oversaw crimes both in their own territory and the broader area Roman controlled. That included collecting 'tax payments' from Latino gangs under his control, prosecutors said.
His daughter was sentenced in 2015 to 15 years in federal prison, culminating an investigation that federal authorities dubbed 'Operation Roman Empire.'
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles, declined comment on Roman's death. The Kings County District Attorney's Office also declined comment.
The Mexican Mafia - which did not originate in Mexico - was founded in 1957 by 13 Latino gang members at the Deuvel Vocational Institution, a California youth detention center. At the time, the members were looking to protect themselves from other rivals. Today it has close to 400 active members.
His alleged assailants, Cisneros and Alvarado, are being held in isolation during the investigation. Officials said two stabbing weapons were recovered.
Both men are serving life sentences, Cisneros for an attempted first-degree murder in San Bernardino County and Alvarado for a second-degree murder in Los Angeles County.
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