Feds: Send Latin King gang leader to prison for 60 years

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Updated: February 12, 2012 8:19AM

The head of the Latin Kings street gang should go to prison for 60 years on a racketeering conspiracy conviction, federal prosecutors said Tuesday.

Prosecutors filed a recommendation for Augustin Zambrano, 51, to receive the maximum prison term. The gang has more than 10,000 members in Illinois, officials said.

Zambrano enforced gang rules that required Latin Kings members to shoot rivals, prosecutors said. They said they presented proof the gang was involved in 20 shootings — three fatal — and called that a “small sample.”

Prosecutors scoffed at Zambrano’s contention that he was trying to stop violence by interceding in conflicts. They told U.S. District Judge Charles Norgle that a 60-year sentence would send a message to young people in Chicago that “if you join a gang where murder, gun trafficking and drug dealing are part of the agreement, you forfeit your right to live in a free society as soon as you are caught.”

In October, Fernando “Ace” King, the Latin Kings’ reputed No. 2 leader, was sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.