Violent MS 13 Gang Leader Busted in Los Angeles.

While police in Albuquerque try to find a third suspect in Saturday’s deadly MS 13 gang robbery at Denny’s, we are learning the leader of the Los Angeles based gang has been busted.

37-year-old Alex Sanchez was rounded up in a gang crackdown in the Southland on Wednesday.

Sanchez, ironically has been hiding in plain site of authorities for years.
He founded the anti-gang program Homies Unidos, but is now being accused by the Feds of being involved with the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang the entire time.

Sanchez has been a role model, for kids, in the Los Angeles area for years. His non-profit’s mission – to keep kids out of gangs. Sanchez, convinced people that he'd left the violent street gang to rescue, or as it appears now, recruit, kids.

Police say Sanchez even conspired to murder LA Detective Frank Flores who spent the last decade investigating the gang’s activities.


He faces Federal racketeering charges, including murder and narcotics.

This morning, our Albuquerque police sources, told us another restaurant was stormed by three armed men after 11pm last night. The robbers forced workers at the Sonic Drive-In, on Menaul near Carlisle, to open a vault. The men reportedly stole money from the worker's and drove in a small white car with a blue racing stripe.

Yesterday, Albuquerque Police gave us a copy of an arrest warrant. They are charging 30-year old Mario Burgos-Rosales with harboring a fugitive. Police say they suspect him and Jose Melgar of driving Francisco Melgar to Arizona and then paying another man to take the fleeing murder suspect into Mexico. Melgar's brother Jose was not arrested.

UPDATED: Slaves in Our Own Neighborhoods

The Faces Of Human Trafficking!

A Bi-national conference will tackle human trafficking in Albuquerque today.

Attorney General Gary King says even though slavery was abolished in the United States more than 140 years ago, it still exists today and it is happening in New Mexico.

Updated at 5:15 with Video from the Attorney General's office:

"Victims may be found working as domestics or in the service industries; maybe even being forced to be sex slaves," says Attorney General Gary King. "We've only had a law against human trafficking for less than a year in New Mexico so we are in the early stages of being able to identify and help victims."

The Attorney General is scheduled to speak today during a human trafficking conference at the Sheraton Uptown Hotel in Albuquerque.

The conference, entitled Modern Day Slavery in the Americas: A Regional Approach to a Global Epidemic, brings together law enforcement, policy makers, service providers and researchers from Mexico and the U.S.AG

King says hard statistics on how widespread the problem is in New Mexico are hard to come by due to a number of factors such as fear and language barriers, but the anecdotal evidence is strong and as more people learn about human trafficking, more cases will become apparent.

The Polaris Project tracks human trafficking crimes. Read more here.

A 2005 estimate suggested that annually between 17,500 and 20,000 people are trafficked into the United States.

Assistant Attorney General Maria Sanchez-Gagne who heads the AG's Border Violence Division will also address the conference. She says, "Many victims do not speak English so its hard for them to communicate with service providers. Most have been threatened by the traffickers and are afraid to talk to law enforcement."

King's office has worked hard to get the human trafficking law passed in New Mexico. "We are working just as hard to educate law enforcement, the judiciary and others about how to enforce it and get help for the victims, " King says.

In Arizona, Mexican drug cartels grossed an estimated $2 billion last year on smuggling illegal immigrants according to state officials.

Meanwhile, in California, Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) says greed and opportunity has prompted the cartels to move into illegal immigrant smuggling. AG King believes that immigrant smuggling often leads to human trafficking, which is very different and requires its own separate handling in New Mexico.