Two Lake Elsinore residents were among 25 members and associates of the Mexican Mafia who were arrested Thursday on multiple federal indictments, authorities said.
Jaime Alvarado, 42, a.k.a. “Junior” and “Brian Barbas”; and Karina Cesena, 32; were among those taken into custody in a series of raids Thursday morning, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced in a press conference. Charges against those arrested include kidnapping, extortion, trafficking fentanyl and methamphetamine, running illegal gambling businesses, and murdering a victim last year at a gang-controlled Anaheim motel, according to a news release.
“Gang members who murder, extort, kidnap, and traffic drugs and firearms are a menace to our communities and our way of life,” said Essayli. “Today’s arrests highlight the continuing cooperation between federal and local law enforcement against violent felons and our unyielding determination to crack down on organized crime in our prisons and our streets.”
“The defendants [who are] accused of operating their own ‘Gangsta’s Paradise’ in Orange County by peddling illicit drugs and carrying out assault and murders, among other crimes, are being held accountable today,” said Akil Davis, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “Orange County communities should be proud of their law enforcement professionals whose hard work and devotion to this case made the streets of Orange County safer today.”
“The Mexican Mafia, a.k.a. ‘La Eme,’ is a U.S.-based prison gang that has immense control over Hispanic street gangs in Southern California, directing illegal activities from prisons and collecting a portion of the proceeds from drug trafficking, illegal gambling, and other crimes committed on the streets,” the news release stated.
Also facing federal charges and already incarcerated at the time of Thursday’s arrests are Luis Cardenas, 48, a.k.a “Gangster”, “Pops”, and “Tio”, already an inmate at Ironwood State Prison; and Jose Antonio Ochoa Madrigal, 41, a.k.a “Sparky”, of Santa Ana.
The news release further states that from June 2024 to April 2026, Madrigal oversaw the Mexican Mafia’s criminal activities in Orange County and within Orange County jail and prison facilities. Alvarado, Cesena, Madrigal, and Mario Flores, 40, a.k.a. “Happy,” of Anaheim, held the position of high-ranking associates for Cardenas.
According to authorities, Cardenas used an encrypted messaging application on contraband cell phones to direct Alvarado in the operation of the Mexican Mafia’s activities in Orange County.
Cardenas directed others to kidnap and assault people in bad standing with him, and Alvarado, Cesena, and others carried out his directions. Defendants operating for the Mexican Mafia shot at and assaulted victims.
“The gang also sold narcotics – including fentanyl, methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine – via slap houses (illegal gambling houses), gangs, and drug dealers in Orange County,” the news release stated. “Alvarado oversaw gang-controlled motels and, along with Cesena, directed violent retaliation against slap houses that did not pay the gang’s extortionate ‘taxes.’
“On March 14, 2025, Cardenas, Alvarado, Flores, and Cesena directed the kidnapping and assault of a victim who was an employee at a Cardenas-controlled slap house in Stanton. The penalty for kidnapping is life in federal prison,” the news release continued.
