A 33-year-old man was sentenced Thursday to 4 1/2 years in federal prison for taking part in an effort to attack a man on the orders of reputed Orange County Mexican Mafia chief Johnny Martinez.
Orlando Arballo pleaded guilty Dec. 20 to possessing a gun and ammunition as a felon. His punishment in the federal case will run consecutively to a 16-year term he received in state court.
On Christmas Day in 2017, Martinez ordered two assaults on Ricardo Moncada, both of which were intercepted by police, who had the gang on a wire, prosecutors said. Martinez suspected Moncada was using drugs with “and making advances toward” Martinez’s girlfriend, Dolores Mendez.
Shot-caller Omar Mejia, who is now cooperating with prosecutors in the racketeering case against the Orange County chapter of the Mexican Mafia, called Arballo when the first crew sent to rough up Moncada was arrested, prosecutors said.
“Mejia explained that Johnny Martinez wanted (Moncada) to be hurt badly,” prosecutors said in a sentencing brief for the defendant.
Police warned the victim and then when they attempted to pull over the crew Arballo was with the officers got into a chase with the suspects, prosecutors said.
Arballo was let out of the car during the pursuit and ran way before the car in the pursuit crashed into a parked car, prosecutors said. Arballo had a gun in the backpack he was using.
“But for the intervention of officers who were monitoring the defendant’s communications with Mejia, defendant would have gone to (the victim’s) home and committed a violent assault against him in front of his family on Christmas Day,” prosecutors said.
Arballo has a “long history of gang involvement, possession and use of firearms, and arrests and criminal convictions,” prosecutors said. But he also “reports a very troubled childhood and long-term drug addiction.”
Arballo’s first conviction came when he snatched a necklace from a woman walking with her baby, prosecutors said.
“As a result of his violent and dangerous criminal activities, the defendant is currently sentenced to two concurrent 16-year terms of state prison,” prosecutors said.
Prosecutors had recommended eight years in federal prison for the attack on Moncada.