The FBI released the below information on convicted Buffalo gang leader Efrain Hidalgo (seen in the below photo):
The 7th Street Gang in
Buffalo, New York was once considered one of the most violent criminal
organizations in the city. It terrorized the surrounding neighborhood while its
leader, Efrain “Cheko” Hidalgo, led a bloody turf war with a rival gang.
Murders and shootings were rampant for almost six years before an FBI-led
investigation dismantled both gangs and, in August, placed Hidalgo behind bars.
“Hidalgo was a driving force
behind the rivalry and all of the violence in the West Side,” said Special
Agent Jason Galle, who investigated the case out of the FBI’s Buffalo Field
Office. “The evolution from dealing drugs with his street corner gang to becoming
the leader of the largest criminal enterprise in the city was rapid.”
Hidalgo was just a child the
first time he was introduced to dealing drugs. Growing up in a dysfunctional
home in Buffalo, he and his siblings found ways to survive and make money on
the streets while skipping school and evading foster care.
From selling his first bag of
marijuana at age 10 to trafficking illegal narcotics in his late 20s, Hidalgo
eventually formed “Cheko’s Crew” while recruiting friends and family to deal
drugs in his lower West Side neighborhood. Having proven himself as a
formidable crime boss, Hidalgo joined forces with the 7th Street Gang in 2000
over mutual ties and rivalries with competing drug dealers in the community.
Hidalgo’s 7th Street Gang
became a focus for the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, which included Bureau
agents and officers from the Buffalo and New York State Police Departments. The
partnership began to aggressively root out criminals after a wave of violence
hit Buffalo’s lower West Side in the summer of 2009, when Hidalgo and his gang
were involved in a series of murders, attempted murders, and drive-by shootings
in a deadly feud with the rival 10th Street Gang.
After a series of coordinated
raids by the FBI-led task force in 2009 and 2010, criminals from the 7th Street
Gang and the 10th Street Gang were all brought to justice. Both gangs were
successfully dismantled as a result of the Racketeering Influenced Corrupt
Organizations (RICO) Act, which allows prosecutors to charge numerous associates
of an enterprise with multiple crimes at the same time. In this case, the gang
members were not only found guilty of murder but of narcotics trafficking,
robbery, and firearms offenses as well.
Following the FBI raids,
Hidalgo managed to evade arrest but was finally captured in 2011 while trying
to flee the country. He was sentenced on August 17, 2016 to 27 years in prison
for his role in four murders and seven attempted murders. Like his fellow gang
members, he was also convicted under the RICO conspiracy and for discharging a
firearm in furtherance of a violent crime.
“Using an enterprise approach
to take out the rival gangs, rampant gang activity in neighborhoods on the West
Side has diminished considerably.”
“Using an enterprise approach
to take out the rival gangs, rampant gang activity in neighborhoods on the West
Side has diminished considerably,” said Adam S. Cohen, special agent in charge
of the FBI’s Buffalo Field Office. “The people living there feel safe in their
homes, and now enjoy the quiet, once-familiar neighborhoods that decades ago
built Buffalo’s historic West Side.”
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