Mexican Mafia settled scores with killing at Long Beach homeless camp, records reveal

Prison was Samuel Villalba’s domain.

On the inside, he was Negro from Artesia, a Mexican Mafia member whose word was the law to the thousands of Latino gang members who fall under the syndicate’s influence.

Outside prison, he was an ex-con with a failing liver and a dark past. His once muscular body, tattooed with the black hand of the Mexican Mafia, had grown thin. Home was a tent on the side of a freeway.

Sometime during his 16 years in federal prison, according to law enforcement, Villalba was cast out of the Mexican Mafia for assaulting a fellow member. The sentence was death. Prosecutors allege it was carried out by two men who crept through the homeless camp where Villalba lived the evening of Jan. 10, 2021, carrying guns in gloved hands.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-11-18/man-charged-with-killing-mexican-mafia-member-in-long-beach-homeless-camp