Nearly two decades after its leadership was taken down by an array of law enforcement, the Mexican Mafia still has roots that run deep in San Antonio.
"I don't see this gang going away anytime soon," said Anthony Rodriguez, a former gang intelligence officer at the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.
Now an investigator with the Bexar County District Attorney's Office, Rodriguez said the gang is generational and its members are fathers, sons and grandsons.
"How do you combat something that is taught at birth?" Rodriguez said.
He said the Mexican Mafia is a California-based prison gang that started in the 1950s.
Rodriguez said the gang allowed Texas to create its own Mexican Mafia in thanks for the loyalty of Texas inmates passing on information that was useful to the gang.
He said San Antonio became its "nation's capital" also known as "la casa blanca," or the White House.
Rodriguez said Heriberto Huerta of San Antonio, who is serving a life sentence for racketeering, remains the gang's president for life.
However, the blow to leadership in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has purportedly led younger members to not pursue higher ranks out of fear, Rodriguez said.
He said now the Mexican Mafia is having to contend with gang rivals and even Mexican drug cartels.
"As a result, the Mafia has more challenges today than when they first started in the '80s," Rodriguez said.
However, he said it remains a violent and aggressive gang whose business is narcotics-driven.
Rodriguez said many of the city's aggravated robberies, home invasions and homicides are committed by the Mexican Mafia collecting the gang's notorious 10 percent tax on drug sales, and even on its members' legitimate proceeds.
He said at times their victims are members who have tried to defect, violating the Mafia's credo that once they're in, there's no way out.
"The Mexican Mafia's reach now extends throughout San Antonio and into surrounding communities," Rodriguez said.
Still, he said law enforcement has been able to suppress gang violence.
However, Rodriguez said he estimates their membership and assorted affiliates now number in the thousands.
"To say they're not there or that they're in some deep, dark corner, you're kidding yourself," he said.