June 13, 2020 – The Roman Empire in the Mexican Mafia has come to an abrupt end. Mexican Mafia boss Danny (Popeye) Roman was stabbed to death in the yard at California’s Corcoran State Prison this week sending shock waves through “La Eme,” the entire west coast prison system and the streets of Southern Cal. Roman, 64, had lorded over the southwest side of Los Angeles County from his prison cell for the past three and a half decades. He headed a Mexican Mafia crew known as the “Harpy’s Dead End 13” gang. Raul (Spy) Alvarado, 47, and Edward (Kid Loose) Cisneros, 31, were identified as Roman’s alleged killers by the prison Thursday. Both Alvarado and Cisneros are serving life sentences and are members of the Harpy’s Dead End 13 crew. Roman was doing life for a murder conviction from 1985. The feds picked off a good chunk of Popeye Roman’s leadership structure on the street when the Operation Roman Empire case dropped in 2012, ensnaring 18 of Roman’s minions, including his daughter Vianna and top “outside” shot-caller Manuel (Droopy) Valencia. Due to Popeye himself already being in the middle of a life sentence, the government didn’t charge him in the indictment bearing his name. Harpy’s wear Houston Astros colors and gear to represent their set. The gang is well known for supplying the students and on-campus drug dealers at the prestigious University of Southern California with narcotics. La Eme traces its roots to the prison system. Founded inside the California Department of Corrections in 1957, the Mexican Mafia eventually spread to the street and today is one of the most powerful and ruthless criminal organizations in the United States. Mexican Mafia co-founder Rodolfo (Cheyenne) Cadena pioneered the concept of “controlling the inside in order to control the outside,” prior to his 1972 assassination in prison.
