This past Friday the police department in Seguin – population around 26,000 – took part in what they say was the largest coordinated investigation in the town’s history.

With federal agents, state troopers, and other law enforcements agencies, local police raided nearly 20 locations targeting top members of what they call the Texas Mexican Mafia. But who are they?

Nathan Jones, a professor of criminal justice at Sam Houston State University and author of the new book Mexico’s Illicit Drug Networks and the State Reaction, says this group is different from the Mexican Mafia based in California, one of the country’s largest prison gangs.

“The Texas Mexican Mafia started in the 1980s to protect Hispanic members of the prison system from another predatory group, the Texas Syndicate,” he says.

Jones says they have a strict hierarchy with a militaristic ranking structure. “It prides itself on being fairly disciplined,” he says. “It even has recent cases where members have killed other members for misbehavior and that’s is kind of a hallmark of a hierarchal and highly disciplined organization.”

What you’ll hear in this segment:

– What police encountered during the raid, including scenes like something out of “Scarface” with stacks of cash and kilos of drugs

– Why these traffickers chose Seguin as their base

– Who flipped and how that may have helped them target this group in particular