Latin Kings member pleads guilty to gang-directed criminal activity

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Updated: February 27, 2012 9:52AM

A Chicago man is pleading guilty to taking part in the criminal organization of the Latin Kings in Northwest Indiana and Chicago, including trafficking more than 330 pounds of cocaine and 2,200 pounds of marijuana, according to a plea agreement filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Hammond.

Hiluterio “Tails” Chavez, 41 or 42, was one of 23 defendants, including two Chicago Police Department officers, charged last year in the racketeering case that spanned 21 years and the killings of 19 people.

The indictment claimed that Chavez traveled with co-defendants Alexander Vargas, of Highland, and Sergio Bernal, of Chicago, to instruct fellow Latin Kings members in Texas in 2005 on orders from higher-ups.

The three taught the gang members in Texas tips on avoiding police and threatened them that if they didn’t follow orders, they would be “smashed,” according to the indictment.

Chavez was accused of going back later that year to get guns from the branch, the indictment said. Chavez was already charged in 2009 in the U.S. District Court of Northern Texas in a similar case that accused him of working with gang members in Texas to deal drugs and weapons. He pleaded guilty and is serving 87 months in federal prison in that case.

Chavez faces at least 10 years on the newest charges, the agreement says, and up to life in prison in exchange for pleading guilty to one count each of racketeering and conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute 5 kilograms or more of cocaine and 1,000 kilograms or more of pot.

The agreement says that he is responsible fore more than 150 kilograms of cocaine, though, along with the 1,000 kilograms of marijuana. He also admits that he committed a Hobbs Act robbery, or robbery that affected interstate trade, with then-Chicago Police Department officers Alex Guerrero and Antonio Martinez Jr. as part of the racketeering conspiracy.

Martinez has pleaded guilty in the case, while Guerrero has pleaded not guilty. All other defendants except for two — Jermaine Ellis, of Chicago, and Jose Zambrano, of Sauk Village, Ill., — have pleaded not guilty in the case.