Chapter 20. Aztex Two Week Report

September 1 to September 14, 2008

The Crystal Aztexs had a simple command structure. Each chapter had Recruits, Soldiers, Leads/Sergeants, and Captains/Capos. At the top of each Chapter was a Chapter Boss and maybe an Underboss or Warlord. Houston was the only city with more than one chapter, they had three, including one at a university. There was also the national leader, plus national officers or specialists as needed, mostly from the Houston chapters.

On Labor Day we cut the head off the snake, getting all the national leaders and all the chapter leaders plus most of the Capos as they attended the party. In addition we got the setup crew of soldiers and leads, as well as the most enthusiastic of the new recruits and the previous year’s recruits. Most of these folks were expected back home by Thursday September 4. When they did not return or even make contact during the week their people wondered, but assumed they were just delayed with the after-party.

For the gang members who stayed home, the lack of news from LA was disturbing, 150+ gang members with automatic weapons merits national coverage even if it’s in LA.

The gang members in the anti-Meth faction of the Aztexs knew something was not according to plan. Some decided it was an opportunity and took action to reorganize priorities at a local level. Since the pro-meth factions lacked leaders, the anti-meth factions took the initiative.

Starting Friday September 5 the dogs went wild on each other. There were one-sided shootouts and other mayhem as smoldering conflicts between the leaderless pro-meth and the multiple anti-Meth factions flared. These battles did not last long, the pro-meth factions expected business as usual so their rivals took more effective actions. Once the pro-meth factions were either converted or left bleeding beyond reasoning, the remaining members returned to their pre-meth habits, ramping up cocaine, grass, pills and other markets, reclaiming their street trade. In most cases they did not have inventory or cash or a relationship with a source, so the product stores soon ran dry. In a business between greedy unreasonable people with guns based on “a what can you do for me?” with attitude, ramping up quickly meant stealing from somebody you knew (and who knew you) or partnering up with a neighboring operation who you would try to wipe out later. Sometimes it was a combination of the two.

The point is, it was a long weekend for some, a short weekend for others, and all around bad for business. The DEA’s GetHigh Price Index spiked upward from Frisco to New Orleans for the first weekend of September.

As the rumors of the Aztex collapse spread further each chapter wound up skirmishing with the neighboring gangs for their sales corners in the marketplace.

The notable exception was LA, most of the neighboring gangs of the Aztexs were stretched thin, still seeking to control the former Black Kings area, since that gang was now a memory. With summer effectively over their customer base returned to their corners looking for what they needed. A lot of junkies did not get what they needed, and they did not react well.

In LA, on Wednesday September 3 the 49 leadership spread the word that Aztex areas were NOT open for armed dispute, and when the first group (a group from the Glen Ghosts) challenged that edict I gave the 49 combat team permission to step out-of-bounds to underline the point.

When the Ghosts (including some former Aztexs) grabbed an Aztex Meth corner known as Shorty Tom’s and started doing business, 49 put up a drone to get their layout. The Ghosts were selling cocaine, meth and counterfeit oxy pills, gauged the market for each, Friday through Monday. The word spread and Meth was the winner, with Friday as the high volume night so the Ghosts declared it a meth corner and passed the word.

Drug dealers are not just one guy on a corner, solo guys get killed and their bodies ripped off. Actual sales are done by a team of 3 or 4 people plus appropriate muscle. The sales team members 1) make contact, 2) vet the buyer as harmless-with-money, 3) collect the cash, and 4) deliver the product. That way somebody is always watching and nobody holds both the product and the money. Any other system is stupid, you are dealing with crooks! At any new location the sales team is backed by at least 4 shooters nearby, to deal with the previous management who might come to talk and go away after lead poisoning - the 9 mm variety.

The Ghosts, who had no experience of common border with 49 and expected the Aztexs to roll-over, anticipated one or two cars for a drive-by the next weekend. But my guys fooled them with a long-range precision attack instead of the traditional sloppy drive-by. For starters my guys used an RPG (from Argentina junta pre-Falklands, it was close to its “must shoot at civilians” use date) to redecorate the car where the stash was kept. It was overkill to make the point. At the same moment the 49 sniper turned off the closest Ghost shooter on overwatch. Both hit within a two-second window. The two triggers were 50 yards apart. Because they were in the dark at least half a block away from their targets there was no effective return fire - the Ghosts didn’t know where to shoot back. But they knew it was long range. As expected a number of Ghost shooters jumped into a pursuit car intended to chase anybody who attacked them. This was the usual counter to the expected drive-by shooting they invited. When all the shooters were on board my guys tripped the small IED under the car’s front end, turning the street racer into front and rear junk.

The only one killed was the Ghost shooter. He had a scoped rifle with 5 notches on the stock, so the cops cleared some cases including 3 young kids wounded by his rounds. The folks in both Ghost cars all spent the weekend in hospitals, wearing handcuffs. The 17 year old guy holding the cash, who already spent 5 years behind bars, took off on his 20-year old Yamaha 650 and is probably still running. Cops rounded up the others.

It was our op, but we grabbed up some local Aztex soldiers as witnesses. After the show they went forth to spread the word of retribution. It was historically an Aztex corner and even if they weren’t going to use it, they needed to defend it.

Here is a short history lesson. For some time the Roman Legions - soldiers with a 10 year enlistment - used to lay out their camps and forts using an identical layout from Briton to the Middle East. That way when the local part-time tough-guy warriors cleverly attacked in the dark by surprise, the Roman career soldiers knew where their armor was, where their spears were stacked, and where to assemble in mass formation for the disciplined crushing counterattack. In effect it was a reverse ambush, the Romans invited the attack by their mere presence, so they did not have to chase the barbarians. Sort of like a mousetrap. Consistency in the dark meant Roman won a lot of those surprise attacks in the dark by brave barbarians.