A 26-year-old gang member will be sentenced in September after he pleaded guilty to federal racketeering charges in which three street gangs were united by an imprisoned Mexican Mafia leader.

The gangs then were able to control criminal activity along the Los Angeles River from Elysian Park to Burbank.

Giovanni “Suspect” Olvera, of Atwater Village, entered his plea in Los Angeles to one federal count each of racketeering conspiracy, drug trafficking and illegal firearms possession. According to his plea agreement Thursday, he faces 15 1/2 years behind bars when he is sentenced Sept. 25.

Olvera, a member of a gang that claims an area north of Los Feliz Boulevard between San Fernando Road and the river, provided methamphetamine to the enterprise and collected “taxes,” according to court papers.

The June 2015 indictment describes a scheme in which the Mexican Mafia worked to unite three longtime rival gangs under the control of Arnold “Arnie” Gonzales, a Mexican Mafia leader serving a life sentence in Pelican Bay.

According to the 27-count indictment, a “peace treaty” imposed by Gonzales in 2010 brought the gangs together “to control the narcotics trafficking and other illicit activities committed in their territories” of Atwater Village, Glendale and northeast Los Angeles.

The indictment alleges a conspiracy to violate the Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and accuses 22 defendants of being “members and associates of a criminal organization engaged in, amongst other things, conspiracy to traffic in narcotics, narcotics trafficking, extortion, and crimes of violence, including conspiracy to commit murder, murder, attempted murder, and robbery.”

–City News Service

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