James Chemo Gutierrez, Racketeering Narcotics Distribution, El Mont…

James “Chemo” Gutierrez, 53, of El Monte, and Kenneth Cofer, 37, also of El Monte, were each sentenced to 180 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to federal racketeering, narcotics distribution, and money laundering charges tied to their leadership in the El Monte Flores street gang. The sentences, handed down by U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt, mark a significant blow to one of Los Angeles County’s oldest and most entrenched criminal organizations.

Gutierrez, a documented Mexican Mafia member and the gang’s top shotcaller, admitted in a plea agreement that he collected extortionate ‘taxes’ from drug dealers operating in El Monte and South El Monte. He acknowledged that violence—including beatings and murder—was routinely used to enforce payment and that he personally authorized attacks on rivals. Prosecutors highlighted his prior 20-year federal sentence for a racketeering-linked murder, underscoring his long history of violent criminal enterprise.

Cofer, who managed and supervised the gang’s drug trafficking and extortion rackets, pleaded guilty not only to RICO conspiracy and narcotics charges but also to possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. He admitted to ordering the shooting of a civilian involved in a dispute with a fellow gang member. Both Gutierrez and Cofer confessed to directing threats and acts of violence at drug dealers and fraudulent document vendors at Crawford’s Plaza, a known hub for illicit activity at Valley Boulevard and Garvey Avenue.

John Rivera, 54, of El Monte, another gang member tied to the same racketeering indictment, was sentenced to 130 months in prison after pleading guilty in December 2015 to conspiring to violate the RICO Act and conspiring to distribute narcotics. Rivera admitted to collecting ‘taxes’ from lower-level gang members, feeding profits up the chain to Gutierrez and the broader Mexican Mafia command structure.

The 2014 RICO indictment painted a brutal picture of the El Monte Flores gang’s operations: a criminal enterprise enforcing control through murder, kidnapping, carjacking, robbery, witness intimidation, credit card fraud, identity theft, and large-scale drug distribution. The organization operates under the authority of the Mexican Mafia, taking orders from incarcerated leaders and funneling illicit proceeds upward through a disciplined hierarchy.

“We now have secured lengthy prison terms for key members of one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles County after using the federal racketeering statute to dismantle the organization’s leadership structure,” said U.S. Attorney Eileen M. Decker. “Street gangs remain one of the most dangerous criminal elements in the region. We are committed to restoring order in neighborhoods terrorized by gangs like El Monte Flores.” The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.