Five alleged members and affiliates of two San Fernando Valley gangs were arrested Tuesday, most of them in connection with a murder-for-hire plot that resulted in a mob boss’s partner being shot in front of their children.
Four of the five people arrested were implicated in an intra-gang dispute involving “Armenian Organized Crime, a Russian Mafia and Mexican Mafia-affiliated transnational criminal organization,” the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
For three years, two local leaders of the group — they’re called “avtoritet,” which means “authority” in Russian — have been involved in a conflict, with 41-year-old Ara Artuni of Porter Ranch placing hits on 47-year-old Robert Amiryan of Hollywood, the DOJ said.
Both avtoritets are now in custody and separately charged with “a series of crimes,” including “a power struggle for control in their territory, resulting in multiple assaults, murder attempts, and a kidnapping,” prosecutors added.
The following four members of the Vanowen Street Locos and Elmwood Rifa 13 gangs are accused of use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire for allegedly targeting Amiryan:
- Carlos Armando Ochoa Grimaldi, 47, aka “Spanky” of Sylmar
- Christopher Ayala, 29, aka “Hits” of Sylmar
- Edir De La Cruz, 34, aka “Temper” of Van Nuys
- Maria de Jesus Mares, 39, aka “Mary Oceans” of Van Nuys.
Grimaldi, Ayala and De La Cruz stalked Amiryan, while Mares helped shoot Amiryan’s significant other when she arrived home with their two children on March 14, prosecutors said. She was wounded in the attack.
A fifth alleged gang member, 49-year-old Jose de Jesus Gonzalez Jr. of Llano, was separately charged in the 2023 shooting of Vahan Harutyunyan, 49, of Hollywood, Florida.
Gonzalez, a Vanowen Street Locos member also known as “Listo,” faces a charge of conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
In addition to the arrests, “five firearms, a silencer, firearm parts and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition were seized during the search warrant services,” the DOJ said.
If convicted, each faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
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