Jesse Guajardo a former high-ranking Latin Kings leader, testified Monday for the federal government, detailing his former boss Fernando King heading a drug conspiracy and how once the gang discovered Guajardo's cooperation with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives put a $50,000 price on his head.
After agreeing to cooperate following his arrest in Feburary 2006 in a drug case involving 150 kilograms of cocaine, Jesse Guajardo had secretly begun helping authorities. He had told no one about his arrest, "I'd get killed," I couldn't tell anybody. Who was I going to tell?" Guajardo wore a hidden recording device while he continued to hold gang meetings and runsecurity details, taping gang beatings as well as conversations with defendant Fernando King, prosecutors said. He also taped King agreeing to accept drugs or money to insure Guajardo's drug business and protect it from other gang members, prosecutors argued.
King is charged with drug conspiracy and with taking what he thought was cocaine from Guajardo as payment. King's lawyer, Joseph Lopez, said his client was concerned with running a restaurant business, not with drug trafficking. He said King does not deny he's a Latin King but said the gang's bylaws do not require members to be criminals. They have to be believers in "Kingism," Lopez said. "Like a cult," he said. "It's the same thing."
SOURCE CHICAGO TRIBUNE
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