OGDEN -- Tales of Trece.
A 331-page injunction filed by the Weber County Attorney's Office seeking to shut down Ogden Trece, the city's oldest gang, reads like a script for a bad movie. Hollywood might find it too over-the-top, too unlikely for a city the size of Ogden.
It details some 700 incidents involving Treces going back three and four years, plus a 2002 incident where a child was fatally shot in a crossfire involving members of Trece.
The declarations from 39 Ogden police officers summing up their Trece encounters is the backbone of the gang injunction that will be aired Sept. 14 in 2nd District Court.
If finalized that day, the 485-member gang would face a ban on associating in public, on being "in the presence" of guns, drugs and alcohol, and other restrictions, including an 11 p.m. curfew.
It's the first civil injunction filed in the state to attempt to label a street gang a public nuisance, patterned after successful injunctions in California filed by officials who have schooled the county attorney's office and the Ogden Metro Gang Unit.
The gang unit leads off the 127 pages of declarations, its section authored by gang Detective Anthony Powers.
"Myself and other gang detectives have located hundreds of criminal cases committed by members of Ogden Trece over the last several years ... If given more time we could spend the next couple of years documenting all of Ogden Trece's activity," Powers writes.
"However, the team working on this injunction wants to get this case into court as quickly as possible to put an end to the nuisance activity and hopefully prevent the next murder."
Trece is a generational hybrid gang that is in its third generation, hybrid meaning they recruit from any race and both genders, according to Powers, certified as a gang specialist by the Utah Gang Investigators Association.
All Ogden Trece gang members are expected to "put in work" in order to build their street credibility, Powers wrote. He provided examples, including a gang pep talk from Riqo Perea, a Trece currently serving life without parole in prison for standing up for his gang.
A card Perea sent from the county jail to a juvenile Trece was discovered since Perea went off to prison.
The juvenile was ordered by gang elders to commit a drive-by shooting of a house. Though no one was hit, the teen was honored by having his nickname changed to The Assassin.
"Riqo titles the card (to the teen) 'Tha Assassin.' and it's accompanied with a picture of a hand holding a gun," reads the injunction.
"In the note Riqo tells the youth, 'I'm very proud of you not only because of why you're here but by the way you think, the way you carry yourself and what you hold with you.'
"Remember our meanings and our codes, life is about money and taking care of yours. Loyalty, Respect, Trust, Honor."
Riqo signed the card with his new moniker, "The Beast," awarded by the gang after he shot into a crowd that was mocking Trece on Aug. 5, 2007, killing two and wounding two.
In May he was sentenced to life in the Utah State Prison for the shootings, plus six months for violating his probation on weapons and alcohol charges.
Graveside beating
Ten days before Perea was sentenced, Anthony Prieto Jr. was visiting the grave of his sister, Sabrina Prieto, on her birthday. She was one of the two people Riqo Perea shot and killed.
Two Perea gang mates drove up, Marquis Lucero, a half-brother of Perea, and Richard Tehero. Prieto asked that they leave, to allow his sister some respect.
"He was told that his sister got what she deserved," according to the injunction. The two Treces then beat him until he blacked out. He awoke to find one of the Treces holding a semi-automatic pistol at his side. He fled to his vehicle, the two Treces giving chase until Prieto had a minor traffic accident a few blocks away.
The incident at the Ogden cemetery was one of four accounts of Trece harassment of the Prieto family over the Perea case since the fall of 2009, according to the gang injunction.
In a January incident, a Trece yelled at Prieto family members: "This is Centro City Locos. This is what we do, we shoot mother
-." Trece may be reverting to their old name from the 1970s and 1980s, according to Powers. None of the Prietos are gang members of any kind, according to the court papers.
Trece crossfire
The gang injunction also includes the June 22, 2002, fatal shooting of 12-year-old Jesse Martinez as he sat nearly in his mother's lap for a religious service at Monroe Park at 29th Street and Quincy Avenue.
Two blocks away, in the middle of the intersection of 29th and Liberty Avenue, three Treces had exchanged gunfire with several rival gangsters. A shot from a rifle of a rival firing back at a Trece missed, traveling nearly two blocks to hit Jesse in the head. The Treces were charged and sent to prison for their part, but the man who fired the rifle died in his native Central American country before he could be extradited on murder charges.
Other behavior cited in the injunction includes numerous robberies, burglaries, drug cases, assaults and a Trece auto theft ring:
* July 30, 2007: A Trece is arrested trying to steal a Honda Accord bait car equipped with video capturing the thief's face, leading to detail on a Trece auto theft ring. They favor Hondas, the thief getting first dibs on everything found in the car.
The car is passed on to other gang members on a first-come, first-served basis, then the car is used to commit other crimes, used as a "G-ride," as in G for gangster, sort of a Trece fleet car.
One suspect told police "He had been involved in so many stolen Honda Accords in the past two months that he doesn't remember which ones he stole or where they came from." The Ogden Police Department reported more than 42 Hondas stolen in 2007.
* Sept. 20, 2007: Three Treces are arrested in the auto theft ring after they crash their stolen car while fleeing police. One of the recovered stolen vehicles placed in a private impound yard used by Ogden police didn't last long. "They broke into the impound yard, re-stole the vehicle and then burned it."
* May 10, 2006: A woman calls police saying she kept getting calls she thought were a joke from a man trying to sell her methamphetamine. She agreed to arrange a controlled purchase with the seller at a lot at 24th Street and Monroe Boulevard. Waiting police pulled over the caller's car to find three Treces.
Searches revealed a large folding knife, meth pipes, a drug scale, one drunk Trece, but no narcotics. The Trece who had been calling the woman admitted to the solicitations "but stated that it was actually his intent to take her money."
* Mark Mora, who faces trial on two counts of automobile homicide for allegedly trying to outrun police in a chase that ended in a crash killing two motorists, is a Trece, according to the injunction.
Mora's juvenile record includes weapons charges, three cases of riot (assaults in concert with two or more accomplices) resulting in injury, and one count of assault with substantial injury. On Aug. 25, 2007, the then 15-year-old Mora was picked up on one of his juvenile warrants. He threatened two arresting officers, "telling us to watch our backs once he is out."
Gang code of silence
* Aug. 17, 2009: Police visit a known Trece recovering from a gunshot wound in the hospital. The Trece tells officers he was at a gang party, heard shots fired but thought nothing of it until he woke up the next morning in a pool of blood.
He first told Powers he was too drunk to remember what happened. "He then stated he could not tell me what happened because he would not be a snitch." His girlfriend backed his statements with rehearsed answers.
Powers noted the man's brother had an almost identical incident eight months earlier. Also a Trece, he also ended up in a hospital with most of one knee blown off by a shotgun.
He told police it was an accident, but let slip remarks about retaliating, which he tried to cover by saying, "I mean I'm going to kick my own ass."
Taking him at his word that he mishandled his own shotgun, he was charged and jailed for possession of a firearm by a restricted person, a prior felony conviction banning him from gun possession.
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