CALIFORNIA – The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced September 30 that five members and associates of the San Fernando Valley’s Vanowen Street Locos and Elmwood Rifa 13 gangs were arrested on a federal complaint.
Four are accused in a murder-for-hire plot that targeted an Armenian crime boss but instead left his significant other wounded in front of their two young children earlier this year.
The defendants arrested are:
- Carlos Armando Ochoa Grimaldi, 47, a.k.a. “Spanky,” of Sylmar;
- Christopher Ayala, 29, a.k.a. “Hits,” of Sylmar;
- Edir De La Cruz, 34, a.k.a. “Temper,” of Van Nuys; and
- Maria de Jesus Mares, 39, a.k.a. “Mary Oceans,” of Van Nuys.
Agents seized about five firearms, a silencer, parts, and over 1,000 rounds of ammunition during the searches.
Power struggle for control
Affidavits state that Armenian Organized Crime — linked to the Russian and Mexican Mafias — has made Los Angeles County a hub of its U.S. operations.
Since 2022, two local leaders within the organization, also known as avtoritet (“authority” in Russian), allegedly have engaged in a power struggle for control in their territory, resulting in multiple assaults, murder attempts, and a kidnapping.
Robert Amiryan, 47, of Hollywood — an avtoritet, was targeted in assaults and attempted murders ordered by rival avtoritet Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch.
Amiryan and Artuni remain in federal custody on earlier charges, with trials set for December 2025 and August 2026, respectively.
Artuni is chiefly charged with repeatedly ordering Amiryan’s murder in 2023.
Wounded Amiryan’s partner
In June 2023, Amiryan retaliated by conspiring with his group to kidnap and torture one of Artuni’s associates.
In early 2025, Grimaldi, Ayala, De La Cruz, and others began stalking Amiryan and renewed attempts to kill him. In February 2025, Ayala told De La Cruz that he and others were still “on the job” to kill Amiryan.
On March 14, 2025, Grimaldi and Vahagn Stepanyan, 40, of Burbank, shot and wounded Amiryan’s partner as she arrived home with their two children.
Stepanyan is in federal custody, charged with racketeering, fraud, and firearms offenses.
After the shooting, Mares called De La Cruz saying the “job [was] done,” and Stepanyan would pay her $50,000 for serving as the getaway driver, court records state.
In the days afterward, Mares told De La Cruz that she believed she would not be getting paid because “it was the wife, not him.”
Stepanyan paid Mares a reduced amount since Amiryan was not killed.
Face up to 20 years in prison
Grimaldi, Ayala, De La Cruz, and Mares are charged with using interstate commerce facilities to commit murder-for-hire.
Also arrested was Vanowen Street Locos member Jose de Jesus Gonzalez, Jr., 49, of Llano, a.k.a. “Listo,” who faces separate charges in the August 2023 shooting of Vahan Harutyunyan, 49, of Hollywood, Florida — now in federal custody on kidnapping charges.
Gonzalez is charged with conspiracy to violate the RICO Act.
The defendants are set to appear this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. If convicted, they face up to 20 years in federal prison.
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