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Latin Kings Informant Gets Break In Racketeering Case

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 3, 2008

A Latin Kings gang member who attorneys say turned his life around and helped prosecutors go after other members of the gang was sentenced today to six years in federal prison for racketeering conspiracy, a sharply reduced term because of his cooperation.

Elbert Hidalgo, 24, known as "King Queso," faced a maximum life prison sentence, but federal sentencing guidelines put the term at closer to 20 years. However, U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday granted a defense motion that he lower Hidalgo's sentencing range because of what a defense attorney called Hidalgo's heroic cooperation.

Before he was sentenced, Hidalgo apologized to the court and to his family and friends. "All my life, I grew up struggling," he said. He said he joined the Latin Kings because he "didn't know no better. … I regret everything in my life."

Hidalgo promised he was done with his criminal ways. "Jail scares me," he told the judge. "I'm only 24. I wish you would show me mercy. … I give you my word, you'll never see me in jail again. Just show me mercy, sir. I messed up and I know I did. Give me one more chance at life."

According to Hidalgo's plea agreement, he conspired at least four times with other Latin Kings to murder people "deemed to have interests adverse" to the Latin Kings in the Tampa area.

In 2005, the agreement states, Hidalgo and at least three other Latin Kings tried to murder people by firing weapons at them after receiving orders from higher-ranking members of the gang.

Merryday said Hidalgo was "one of the luckiest people on the planet" that none of the bullets hurt or killed anyone. If someone had been killed, the judge said, Hidalgo would most certainly be imprisoned for life.

Public Defender David Secular wrote in a sentencing memorandum that Hidalgo "grew up under extremely difficult circumstances. He was neglected by his parents and his father was afflicted with an addiction to alcohol and cocaine. The defendant also had to endure seeing his mother physically abused."

Hidalgo joined the Latin Kings at the age of 12 in New York. In 2002, when the defendant was 18, his father moved the family to Florida "in an effort to provide his children with a fresh start," Secular wrote. "Unfortunately, however, Elbert by this time was already immersed in and dependent upon the Latin Kings."

The federal prosecutor, Julie Mosley, an attorney with the Justice Department, had recommended that Hidalgo be granted a nine-level reduction in his possible sentence, but she told Merryday that the U.S. attorney's office would approve only a request for a four-level change. Mosley would not discuss any details about Hidalgo's cooperation.

Secular persuaded Merryday to grant the nine-level reduction, arguing that Hidalgo had put himself and his loved ones in jeopardy through his extensive cooperation against a dangerous gang.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.

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