Salvatore Nania has not set foot in his hometown of San Pedro since 1995, when he was arrested at 17 for murder.
But according to law enforcement authorities, being locked up hasn’t stopped him from running drug and protection rackets in his old neighborhood.
Nania, 47, was accused Tuesday of leading the Rancho San Pedro gang from his cell in the California prison system. Authorities arrested 13 people on charges of selling drugs, possessing illegal weapons and collecting protection money in the harbor area.
While high-ranking federal and local officials proclaimed Tuesday’s arrests as removing “the head of the hydra,” a closer look at court and law enforcement records indicate that Nania is more of a mid-level manager than chief executive.
The son of Sicilian immigrants, Nania is alleged to be an associate of the Mexican Mafia, an organization of about 140 men who hold sway over Latino gang members behind prison walls and in the streets of Southern California.
No full-fledged members of the Mexican Mafia were charged in Tuesday’s operation.
In an affidavit, a federal agent wrote that Nania delegated tasks — picking up money, delivering drugs — to lower-level members of his gang on the street. According to the affidavit, Nania, nicknamed “Crook,” accomplished this with smuggled cellphones. He has been caught with contraband phones eight times in the last eight years, the document said.
Nania has yet to enter a plea to racketeering charges filed in federal court, and it wasn’t clear if he had a lawyer who could speak for him. Asked at a parole hearing in 2022 if he worked for the Mexican Mafia, Nania replied: “That’s absolutely false.”
Nania told the parole board he joined a gang at 13. He traced his life of crime to problems at school. His parents didn’t speak English and taught him Italian as his first language. They dressed Nania differently than his classmates, who picked on him.
“That’s where the fights started,” he said.
Angry at his parents, Nania said he turned to his gang — which he didn’t identify by name before the parole board — for acceptance. “It seemed like every time I did a crime, no matter how small or big it was, I got praised for it,” he recalled. “So I felt, OK, this is where I belong then.”
One night, Nania said, he came home late and found his clothes strewn across the front lawn, he said. His father had had enough. Nania was a transient at 16.
The night of Oct. 13, 1995, Nania was at a party to commemorate the death of a fellow gang member, according to an appellate decision that summarized evidence at his trial. A young woman walked by; someone threw a beer bottle at her.
Her father, Christopher Kuaea, confronted the group.
“I shot him several times,” Nania told the parole board. “He turned around, tried to run away. I shot him several more times in the back.”
Nania, who’d been drinking beer and smoking marijuana that night, said he felt disrespected by Kuaea. “My mentality was, ‘This is my city,’” he told the board.
Tried as an adult, Nania was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to 40 years to life. At his parole hearing, he admitted beating a prison guard with a baton during a riot and possessing phones.
The federal affidavit says authorities tapped Nania’s phones as detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department worked with FBI and Homeland Security Investigations agents to unravel drug networks in the harbor area.
Based in a World War II-era housing project on 1st Street, the Rancho San Pedro gang is now divided into six cliques, including two female crews, the Malditas and the Locas.
Nania’s alleged “secretary” was Angelica “Dizzy” Wertz, the affidavit said. A reputed member of the Locas, Wertz allegedly impersonated an FBI agent in an attempted home invasion robbery in February, hammering on the front door while holding a gun.
In a wiretapped call, Wertz said she was “taxing” smoke shops in San Pedro on Nania’s behalf, the affidavit said. She complained that two other gang members weren’t cutting in the prisoner on their own protection racket.
“They tried to, like, take — take most of the money,” she said in a recorded call. “But the thing is, that’s not how it goes.”
According to the affidavit, Nania stayed informed about police activity in his old neighborhood. After a seizure of drugs and guns, Wertz allegedly texted the person who lived in the house that was raided: “Crook wants to know what the hell happened.”
Another leader in Rancho San Pedro, authorities allege, is Salvador “Smokey” Perez, 33, who is serving 18 years at Kern Valley State Prison for shooting at a perceived gang rival in 2011.
An alleged underling in the gang, David “Criminal” Titus, was overheard on a wiretap saying Perez “runs” San Pedro, the affidavit said. In another recorded call, Titus allegedly told Perez that he’d warned a fentanyl dealer called Weasel, “You got to pay rent.”
He promised to kick up the money to Perez, later providing him with a code to a prepaid debit card, according to the affidavit.
The document makes clear that Rancho San Pedro’s members are not living extravagantly. Titus, who lived with his mother, was overheard asking for a ride to her house because his motorcycle wouldn’t start.
In another recorded call, Jesse “Seco” Lopez told a supplier he needed $20 worth of drugs and asked for the product to be dropped off. “I don’t have no wheels right now,” he said. Rene “Suspect” Balanzar, described in the affidavit as an “enforcer” who collected taxes for Nania, lived out of a Motel 6.
But authorities say the gang was serious when it came to protecting their rackets from law enforcement.
After the LAPD seized a gun and more than two kilograms of methamphetamine from Leopoldo “Camel” Cano Rodriguez’s house, Cano and Jose “Rojo” Castro suspected a member of their gang was an informant, according to the affidavit.
In an intercepted call, Castro and Cano discussed “pinning” the drugs and guns on the suspected informant, but agreed it would only work if the alleged snitch was “already dead.”
“That’s easy, dude,” Castro allegedly said. “I can pick him up.”
Cano asked where he’d take the man, who wasn’t identified in the affidavit.
“To the desert,” Castro replied.
LAPD officers alerted the intended victim to the threat.
In announcing Tuesday’s arrests, Sean Haworth, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, predicted the investigation “will no doubt cripple” Rancho San Pedro.
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman claimed the gang has “in large part been put out of business.”
But previous takedowns haven’t seemed to affect the gang’s imprisoned leaders, or prevented them from calling shots on contraband phones.
“A lot of things could be done with those cellphones,” Nania told the parole board in 2022. “Crimes could be committed with cellphones.”
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