Mexican Mafia suspects charged with shaking down LA County business, ordering shooting

Matthew Ormseth, Los Angeles Times on Oct 9, 2026

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LOS ANGELES — Jose Argumedo's nickname is "Humble," but authorities say his approach to collecting money was anything but.

When a Pomona business owner balked at paying for protection, Argumedo showed up with a gun and loaded the business' property into a U-Haul truck, prosecutors wrote in a complaint filed earlier this year. In a second complaint unsealed Wednesday, authorities allege that a few months after the U-Haul incident, a gang member fired a barrage of bullets at a man who owed Argumedo money.

Argumedo, a member of Highland Park's Avenues gang, has served prison time for attempted murder and robbery, according to court records and a law enforcement source who wasn't authorized to speak publicly. In the complaint against Argumedo, prosecutors allege he was collecting money for the Mexican Mafia, a prison organization with influence over Latino street gangs across California.

Argumedo's lawyer, Andrew Stein, called the authorities "chickens—" for also arresting Argumedo's wife, who recently gave birth to his child, and tearing up his elderly father's home during a search warrant. Argumedo's wife is charged with conveying some of the extortion demands; his father has not been accused of a crime.

"They want to lock him up for the rest of his life based not on what he did, but on who he is — or who they allegedly think he is," Stein said of his client, who has pleaded not guilty.

Argumedo and eight others are charged with conspiring to commit extortion, murder and other crimes in Pomona, a city of 150,000 that has struggled to shed its reputation as a Mexican Mafia stronghold. Last year, two Pomona gang members were accused of shaking down a businessman who testified he paid a monthly fee after being threatened at gunpoint and having his property vandalized.

Argumedo's first alleged victim was the owner of an auto supply shop that sold nitrous oxide, which can be used to boost a car's engine power but is also consumed as a recreational drug. When Argumedo and three others showed up at the business in May 2026, the complaint said, he called the owner on FaceTime and demanded the man pay "taxes" to the Mexican Mafia.

According to prosecutors, Argumedo threatened to shoot an employee if he didn't open the door. He took $1,500 from the register and loaded the shop's televisions, tools and 20 nitrous oxide tanks into a U-Haul, prosecutors wrote in the complaint.

Two months later, Argumedo tried to collect a debt from an unidentified Pomona man, according to the complaint. Stephanie "Lista" Lechuga, 25, told Argumedo she'd taken the debtor's Mercedes as partial payment, and Argumedo told her the man was "banned from Pomona and placed on a hit list," prosecutors wrote.

Around 8 p.m. the next day, the debtor was driving near 6th and Palomares streets in Pomona when Ruben "Cranky" Figueroa fired a dozen shots at the man's car, according to the complaint. At least three struck the car, but the man was apparently uninjured.

Six days later, he was contacted by Jonathan Montano. A reputed member of East L.A.'s King Kobras gang, Montano, 34, once went by "Trigger," a detective testified in a prior case, but the complaint filed Wednesday said his nickname is now "Kid." He was implicated in a 2016 shooting that allegedly involved a corrupt Glendale police detective. Neither Montano nor the detective was charged with the shooting, which wounded the bodyguard of an Armenian organized crime figure.

Montano's name also surfaced during the trial of Jose "Cartune" Loza, who was convicted of gunning down a rival Mexican Mafia member at a restaurant in Bassett in 2016. Montano drove the getaway car, a witness testified at Loza's federal racketeering trial in 2019.

According to the complaint unsealed Wednesday, Montano told the debtor he was targeted by the Mexican Mafia and demanded $2,000. The man sent $2,400 over Cash App to an intermediary, who then notified the debtor that Montano had removed him from the hit list. The man's Mercedes was also returned to him.

Montano, Figueroa, Lechuga and three others were arrested Wednesday morning, FBI officials said in a statement. Argumedo was already in custody for the alleged auto shop shakedown. The defendants are being held in a county lockup with no bail.