A Mexican citizen–who lived in an Anaheim apartment, served as a shot caller for the Wicked Minds criminal street gang and sold drugs for a living–will serve 37 months in a federal prison.
U.S. District Court Judge Josephine Staton Tucker punished Jose De Jesus Rangel-Toledo this month inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse after Placentia and Anaheim police officers conducted a February search warrant.
The raid of the North Dresden Place apartment recovered nine zip-lock bags containing methamphetamine, drug sales equipment, 370 rounds of ammunition, a loaded Smith and Wesson revolver, a Norinco SKS assault rifle and a loaded, sawed-off, 20-gauge shotgun as well as gang memorabilia.
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Local police alerted federal authorities at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about Rangel-Toledo's case and the U.S. Department of Justice pursued charges against “Chunky,” the 29-year-old hoodlum's gang moniker.
Because the defendant admitted guilt prior to a trial, a federal prosecutor recommended he received the low-end of punishment from sentencing guidelines that called for a prison term range of between 37 and 46 months.
Rangel-Toledo remains locked this morning inside the Santa Ana Jail and is awaiting his transfer to prison, according to jail records.
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CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.