Police Magazine

Richard Valdemar

Sergeant (Ret.)

Sgt. Richard Valdemar retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department after spending most of his 33 years on the job combating gangs. For the last 20 years, he was assigned to Major Crimes Bureau. He was also cross-designated as an FBI agent for 10 years of his career when he served on the Federal Metropolitan Gang Task Force. From 1995 until his retirement in 2004, Valdemar was a member of the California Prison Gang Task Force, helping prosecute members of the Mexican Mafia.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•January 25, 2011

A Swahili Dictionary

The Black Panther Press' underground "New Afrikan Swahili Dialect Dictionary" is a guide to words and phrases used by black gang members in prison. Break the code by learning these translated terms.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•January 18, 2011

A Nahuatl Dictionary

A Nahuatl dictionary was intercepted in a prison in September 2000. It contains the code to the ancient Aztec language now being used by gang members. Break the code by learning these translated terms.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•January 18, 2011

Do You Speak Nahuatl?

Mexicans and Mexican Americans who can barely say taco are being taught dialects of the ancient Aztec language Nahuatl. In California prisons both the Mexican Mafia and the rival Nuestra Familia use this Aztec mythology to recruit and train soldiers for their wars.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•January 4, 2011

Blood Brothers: Cartel Ties That Bind

Like the unwanted dandelions that sprout in lawns, cartel and gang partners continue to adapt and survive. The systematic corruption of our police, courts and political system is their goal.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•December 29, 2010

Blood Brothers: Roots of a Cartel War

Like the evolution of the Italian Mafia in U.S. cities such as New York and Chicago, Mexican smugglers or "contrabandistas" evolved from crude thuggish beginnings to more criminally sophisticated organized crime groups.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•December 21, 2010

LAPD's CRASH vs. LASD's OSS

You don't become a gang expert overnight. You don't become qualified to testify in court in just a couple of years. LAPD rotated its officers in and out of CRASH gang units and station areas, but the OSS gang deputies remained in OSS and LASD stations for years, allowing them to develop greater, more complete expertise.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•December 14, 2010

Florence 13: The Other Transnational Gang

The Los Angeles Sheriff's OSS Gang Task Force targeting the F-13 gang soon received information that the F-13 gang was enforcing Mexican Mafia orders to tax all drug dealers, to tax Sureño gangs, to kill rival blacks and run them out of the city, and to tax "Mica Mills" (counterfeit document mills) that produce fake identification and immigration documents.

Inside the Badge •by Richard Valdemar•November 30, 2010