Los Angeles County prosecutors Wednesday accused 19 people of conspiracy to murder a rapper who allegedly angered a member of the Mexican Mafia, a group of members of the Latino gang located in a prison.
According to a complaint filed in the Los Angeles County Superior Court, accusing Mexican mafia member Manuel “Snuffy” Quintero of killing Nelson Abrego, who performed under the name of Swifty Blue.
In the complaint, prosecutors described a sprawling plot that, in Tiktok messages and recorded prison calls, attracted inmates from Kern County, prison inmates in downtown Los Angeles, and gang members of Paramount, Quintero and Abrego Call Home in southeast Los Angeles County.
Quintero, 49, was arrested on Wednesday and has not yet filed a request. It is not clear from the court records whether he has a lawyer. Quintero, a long-time member of the Paramount Varrio gang, has been jailed for assault, manufacturing methamphetamine and false incarceration, court records show.
Manuel Quintero showed in a February 15, 2014 photo from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation that law enforcement officers have identified him as a member of the Mexican Mafia.
(California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation)
The complaint said on New Year's Eve in 2022, Giuseppe “Clever” Leyva, a subordinate of Quintero, told the informant that he had notified the gang members in Paramount, Compton and downtown La that they had directed them to “See Abrego”.
Leyva, 34, is currently detaining an unrelated federal case that accused him of selling drugs and guns in Imperial County. He pleaded guilty to trafficking in methamphetamine in March and has not been sentenced yet. His attorney in the federal case did not immediately return a request for comment.
Leva allegedly said: “F-he”.
It is not clear why Quintero is angry with Abrego, who was unable to comment with him on Wednesday.
In a 2024 interview with The Times, the rapper refused to discuss any potential issues with the Mexican mafia or “prison politics.”
Abrego has previously said his music resonated with people because “everyone wants to be a gangster.”
“Whether you are a lawyer, a policeman or a kid going to school, everyone wants to be big, bad and strong,” he said in 2024.
The complaint said that after eight months of talking to the informant, Leva warned another person to stay away from the rapper in the news about Tiktok.
“Let me give UA LIL 411 SU won’t be guided by the internet,” he wrote. “With Swifty, his career is done.”
“I talked to him to try to guide him, but he didn’t listen,” Leva allegedly continued, adding that the rapper is now “getting his blues” in the men’s central prison.
In November 2023, Abrego was sentenced to jail on firearms charges. OneSimo “Vamps” Gonzalez lowered two cells from the rapper, called his mother and told her to ask a colleague if “a singer” was “still good.”
Gonzalez's mother hung up the phone. When her son called back, she allegedly said, “He was not good.”
Central Prison for Men in Downtown Los Angeles.
(Al Seib/Al Seib/Los Angeles Times)
Gonzalez and his mother were both charged with conspiracy. Gonzalez has been detained. Dominga Gonzalez, 66, was arrested in her Windwhip house on Wednesday, according to a statement from the FBI.
According to the complaint, two days after the mother and son spoke, another prison inmate, Jonathan “Dreamer” Quevedo, said a man imprisoned in Kern County was using a banned cell phone.
After allegedly referring to “Swifty Blue”, Quevedo asked Jacob “Eagle” David if he recalled “Raza rapper” in “Shower”.
Prosecutors believe this is a reference to Jaime Brugada Valdez, a rapper known as Moneysign Suede, who was stabbed to death in a shower at a correctional training facility in Soledad in 2023.
David, who was allegedly imprisoned for carjacking and robbery, replied: “The end result should be the same.”
The complaint said that the next day, David directed Quevedo to tell the attacker: “Treat with prejudice…you know this is a court term? [is] Prejudice. ”
Quevedo allegedly confirmed that it was “movement”.
The complaint said Adrian “Slick” Bueno, Andrew “Largo” Shinaia and Jude “Crazy” Valle entered Abrego's cell while showering from the cell at 5:50 a.m. When Michael “Weasel” Ortiz blocked the nearby camera, Bueno, Shinaia and Valle defeated the rapper and “cutted” him, prosecutors were charged.
About five hours later, Quevedo called a woman from the prison and asked her to tell David “the old boy rap meeting” in the state jail.
“They didn't have a real show,” said Quevedo. “Impressed that they might perform in another area on the 4,000th floor,” “soon here.”
An attempt to Abrego's life was unsuccessful, and by March 2024, Leyva told Joshua “Demon” Euan in a Tiktok message that the rapper “We Talk” recorded a live broadcast outside of our family.
The complaint said Euan drove to the house at 1 a.m. and sent a photo of a gun to Leyva. “He's not here,” he wrote to Leva.
Later, O'Ann allegedly told Leva that he had sent someone to destroy Abrego's family residence. According to the complaint, he sent graffiti photos with the words “Swifty Blue 187”, a murder in the section of the California Penal Code.
Euan, 37, was arrested Wednesday and stayed in the whole city, according to the FBI.
