Inside ‘Operation Dead Horse,’ the dramatic takedown of LA’s 18th Street narco supergang

Under a rare blood moon, 50 cops filled out LAPD’s Hollenbeck Station in gritty Boyle Heights. Their mission was to take down the woman calling the shots for one of the most dangerous street gangs in Los Angeles.

The California Post was there with a front-row seat, soaking in the intensity in the air as a mix of officers from LAPD, the FBI, and other agencies all gathered Tuesday morning at 4 a.m.

Sharp-eyed for their roll call meeting, officers sat in rows as their leader for “Operation Dead Horse,” veteran LAPD Detective Hugo Ayon, explained the mission’s importance.

The goal was to decapitate the infamous 18th Street gang, LA’s largest street gang, which controls meth and fentanyl sales in zombified MacArthur Park, Skid Row and beyond.

The 18th Street gang is also responsible for ruthless murders, human trafficking, drive-by shootings and robberies throughout the city.

“It’s the culmination of a three-year investigation, a takedown in three phases,” said Ayon, a member of the department’s Gang and Narcotics Division and FBI Gang Task Force.

The mission’s biggest priority was arresting feared suspected 18^th Street head of operations Keiko Gonzalez, better known as “Moms,” on racketeering and murder charges.

Gonzalez takes orders from her husband, Mexican Mafia boss Jorge Gonzalez, a.k.a Huero Caballo, police say, a suspected narcotics and racketeering mastermind who’s doing a long stretch in California State Prison.

Together they link 18^th Street to the Sinaloa Cartel, prosecutors say, which enables the gang to distribute massive quantities of drugs in LA and as far away as New York and beyond.

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The second target for the morning’s raid was Edward “Toro” Escalante, 18^th Street’s suspected chief tax collector and enforcer. Escalante helped lead the gang’s efforts to extort “rent” from dealers, users, shopkeepers and the homeless in a wide-ranging extortion program, cops say.

Gonzalez and Escalante live in adjoining units at a two-story apartment building in a residential complex owned by Gonzalez in Boyle Heights.

The plan? To lay in wait for Escalante to leave the complex, as he does each day, at around 6:30 a.m. From there, he will be pulled over and arrested in a traffic stop a few blocks away. 

Then, the cops will wait for Moms to leave the complex and do the same.

Kicking down doors would be too dangerous, Ayon explains. Arresting alleged gangsters in their vehicles will maintain the element of surprise and preserve evidence in their homes.

Besides, Ayon added, Gonzalez is “extremely paranoid,’ and maintains a network of cameras around the property that she’s said to monitor from an 80-inch television in her living room.

Then, like poetry in motion, it happens — Escalante pulls out around 6:40 a.m. in his BMW sedan.

Waiting for the alleged crime honcho in the parking lot of a nearby US Post Office, Ayon guns his pickup, “Any cop worth his salt is an adrenaline junkie,” Ayon exclaimed.

Within minutes, Ayon’s patrolmen have the hulking suspected gang enforcer pulled over and in hand cuffs. Escalante, with tattoos covering his head and a massive frame, the man known as “the bull” cuts an intimidating figure — but even a fugitive as big as Escalante fits in the back of a squad car.

Ayon returns to the post office parking lot and waits for “Moms” to appear.

“If Keiko doesn’t move soon, we’ll tell her there’s a leak in her storage unit,” says Ayon. “Maybe that will draw her out.”

Less than an hour later, Ayon’s officers call him over the radio to report that Gonzalez has come out on her balcony for a smoke. 

Minutes later, Gonzalez returns inside, then reemerges with her purse and keys. She hops in a late-model grey Lexus.

Stealthy unmarked cops follow and pull her over about a half-mile from her home.

Gonzalez is taken into custody without incident. “This is perfect,” grins Ayon.

After Gonzalez is cuffed, Ayon and his team return to the Boyle Heights compound of Gonzalez to serve a search warrant and investigate the property. Two additional people inside are removed from the complex and detained.

Police search the building and find drugs, guns and cash.

According to federal prosecutors, 18^th Street now has more than 100,000 members around the world. 

“It’s a significant blow, because now what they need to do is to restructure their leadership. It’s going to take time to recoup from it. But I’m sure they’re going to try to rebuild and combat that. To what capacity, I don’t know that right now,” Captain Ahmad Zarekani, leader of the LAPD Gang and Narcotics Division, told The Post.

We’re not done with this thing. Federal indictments usually end up in superseding indictments. So I would say, keep your ears open, because they’re more news regarding this gang coming down the pipe,” he added.

Gonzalez and Escalante were among a group of gang members busted in a series of raids in Los Angeles through the week. 

They were charged with conspiracy to commit murder, for arranging the killing of a small-time dealer who failed to pay 18th Street’s extortionate taxes on her drug sales in the gang’s territory, according to prosecutors.

The victim – identified in court papers as “M.Z.” – was shot to death.