FBI targets Mexican Mafia in California in stunning pre-dawn raids

Federal agents arrested 37 accused gang members with ties to the infamous Mexican Mafia Thursday in a series of stunning predawn raids in Orange County meant to put Southern California’s criminal underworld on notice. Dubbed “Operation Gangsta’s Paradise,” agents aimed to disrupt operations of the group, also known as La Eme — a violent, prison-based “gang of gangs” said to control almost all Hispanic street gangs in California.