The conversion of 34-year-old Cordova from violent criminal to government informant has "been like learning how to walk, talk and crawl again," he testified.īut Cordova realized when he was approached by an FBI-led team investigating the SNM in 2016 that "they could help me walk away from the life I was living." I lost all my friendships," Cordova added.
Once I stripped that from myself, I didn't know how to feel. "In the SNM I felt like a human with superpowers. I threw away my career being a successful gangster mafioso. "I learned how to sell drugs from my mom and my dad. "I was raised as a gangster," Cordova testified in July. More: Las Cruces jury convicts 5, acquits 2 Syndicato Nuevo Mexico gang membersĬordova recalled how he committed home invasions, waterboarding those inside until they confessed to the location of drugs and money.Īnd he "happily" took orders from SNM leaders to intimidate jurors in the trial of fellow SNM member Michael Astorga, who was ultimately convicted of fatally shooting Bernalillo County sheriff's deputy James McGrane Jr. He broke her jaw, ribs, arm and the top bridge of her mouth after she violated SNM rules by having an "inappropriate" conversation with another SNM member. To avoid looking weak to his gang, Cordova testified that he beat his wife until she bled internally. Years later, as a Syndicato de Nuevo Mexico prison gang member, Cordova arranged for a rival drug dealer to be given a "hotshot" balloon of heroin mixed with rat poison.Ĭordova came by later to pick up the body, which he dumped outside a neighborhood church.Ĭordova testified about his criminal past and the lure of the SNM gang as a cooperating witness in the federal SNM racketeering prosecution this year. ALBUQUERQUE - At age 9, Billy Cordova prowled what was known as Albuquerque's "War Zone" with his street gang.
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