Matthew Cox

A fourth kingpin, named Armando Valencia, operated out of the LA area.

His organization was the one that was based in Orange County.

Unlike the other organizations which focused on...

Valencia's organization was also involved in the manufacturing and distribution of methamphetamine.

Valencia had operatives in Orange County who supplied the raw materials to traffickers in the L.A.

area, including, among others, to Tim Robles and John Ellenberger, two of the principal FBI and DEA targets in my L.A.

investigation.

Independently, during that same era, we had four Chinese triads operating in the greater L.A.

area.

The triad based down in Orange County was known as the 14K Triad.

For those of you unfamiliar with Los Angeles, Orange County is located in the bottom third of this map.

OC has always been home to a large Asian population, which, as you can see, is clustered in the cities of Westminster, Garden Grove, and Fountain Valley.

The leader of the office for the 14K in Los Angeles was a powerful Chinese gangster named Frank Ma.

Frank Ma.

I know that name.

His organization, known as Ma Gor, was based in Westminster.

Now, what's interesting about the 14K is that this was the first of the powerful Hong Kong-based triads to accept operatives from the mainland.

See, in China, proper, they really didn't have triads.

That's more of a Hong Kong phenomena.

But you did have organized crime groups.