Tony Rafael is the author of The Mexican Mafia (Encounter), the first book about the powerful and secretive criminal enterprise that governs every Hispanic neighborhood in southern California. Based on access to police records and extensive street research, including interviews with gang members themselves, the book documents how "the Black Hand" is well on its way to becoming a transnational criminal enterprise. Rafael lives and works in the Los Angeles area.

REVIEWS

“Tony Rafael's chronicle of the insidious spread of the tribal and violent Mexican Mafia from beyond the prison into the general culture of the American Southwest is frightening. Illegal immigration, the loss of confidence in assimilation, and the failure of the public to recognize the lethal nature of gang life have all led to entire enclaves under the Mexican Mafia's control. A chilling warning of a terrible crisis on the horizon for us all.”

—Victor Davis Hanson, senior fellow, Hoover Institution, author of Mexifornia