From my just-posted magazine piece on the fascinating and troubling case against celebrated anti-gang activist, Alex Sanchez (recipient of awards, grants and a favorite of the mayor of Los Angeles right up until his bust):
What Sanchez didn't know when he participated in those calls was that the FBI was listening in, convinced that he was leading a double life, publicly opposing gangs in his day job, then moonlighting after hours as a "shot-caller" of the Los Angeles street-gang-turned-international-crime-syndicate known as Mara Salvatrucha—MS-13...Read the article in California Lawyer magazine for the whole story.
It seemed like an open-and-shut case. But in the weeks and months that followed Sanchez's indictment, new questions threatened to undermine the prosecution's pat narrative. These were questions about missing government witnesses, mistaken identities, overlooked evidence, the qualifications of reputed gang experts, and the gray areas that anti-gang activists such as Sanchez must, of necessity, operate in.