La Rana Gang: Torrance Roots, the Grajedas, and the Mexican Mafia

The La Rana gang is a Sureño street gang out of Torrance, California, named for the old “La Rana” or “Pueblo” neighborhood along Del Amo Boulevard where it took root. For much of its modern history it operated under the Mexican Mafia, largely through members of the Grajeda family, and ran methamphetamine and cocaine distribution routes that reached from Mexico into Torrance and across nine states.¹

Where the Gang Comes From

The name “La Rana” — Spanish for “frog” — comes from the marshy ground where frogs once thrived before the area was built out, and it has been attached to the neighborhood for more than a century. Mexican immigrants, many from Purepero in Michoacán, began settling the area around 1908, drawn by work at the Pacific Electric Railway shop and nearby industrial plants.² When Torrance incorporated in 1912, racially restrictive covenants limited land ownership to white residents outside designated “Foreign Quarters,” which included the Pueblo.³

Visible youth gang activity and drug dealing emerged in the Pueblo in the 1950s and 1960s. By the time of a 1985 Los Angeles Times profile, the area had shifted toward a community of homeowners with an organized neighborhood watch, though La Rana as a gang persisted.³ Much of the original residential Pueblo has since been replaced by commercial and industrial development, with one account describing the area as now a “business park.”⁴ The gang continued to operate in and around Torrance and the wider Harbor Area well into the 2010s.

The Grajeda Family and the Mexican Mafia

No name is more closely tied to La Rana than Grajeda. The family produced multiple gang members and at least three figures linked to the Mexican Mafia, the prison-based organized crime syndicate that controls Southern California’s Sureño street gangs.⁴

Thomas “Wino” Grajeda

Thomas Grajeda, known as “Wino,” was described in court proceedings as a high-ranking Mexican Mafia member with the authority to order killings. He had prior convictions for armed robbery and assault and was serving a drug sentence at California State Prison, Corcoran, when he was charged with soliciting three fellow inmates to commit murder.⁵ Prosecutors alleged he solicited Danny “Smokey” Figueroa to kill Alfredo “Yogi” Martinez and Ray “Veneno” Martinez, and solicited Jaime “Wicked” Munoz to kill Stevie Gonzalez. A jury convicted him on all three counts in December 2003, and the court imposed three consecutive terms of 25 years to life, for 75 years to life in total.⁶

Senon “Cherilo” Grajeda

Senon Grajeda, identified as a senior Mexican Mafia member by the “black hand” tattoo on his chest that signifies membership, has a criminal record stretching back decades.⁷ In 1988 he was convicted of the murder and robbery of 22-year-old Ralph Morales at the Dana Strand housing project in Wilmington and sentenced to 45 years to life. That conviction was reversed on appeal after a prosecutor was found to have withheld evidence from the defense, and a jury acquitted him at retrial.¹

On November 29, 2010, Senon and his nephew Daniel Tomas Grajeda went to the Wilmington Inn Motel, where an argument escalated over alleged disrespect toward Senon and his family. Daniel shot and killed Johnny Carbajal, a member of the Westside Wilmas gang. A jury found Senon guilty of first-degree premeditated murder with gang and firearm enhancements and sentenced him to 110 years to life: 75 years to life for the murder, 25 years to life for the firearm discharge causing death, and 10 years for two prior serious felony convictions. A California appellate court affirmed the conviction in 2014.⁷

Daniel Tomas Grajeda

Daniel Grajeda, the nephew who shot Carbajal, was convicted in 2012 of first-degree murder and being a felon in possession of a firearm, with gang and firearm enhancements. He was originally sentenced to 62 years to life, later reduced on appeal to 59 years to life. In March 2024, a superior court resentenced him under California Penal Code section 1172.75, striking prior prison term enhancements and a gang enhancement and reducing the aggregate sentence to 50 years to life. In June 2025, the California Court of Appeal reversed that resentencing, finding the trial court had improperly denied Grajeda’s request to consult with his attorney during the hearing, and sent the case back for a new resentencing proceeding.⁸

Arthur “Shady La Rana” Grajeda

Another family member, Arthur Grajeda, appears in court records under the moniker “Shady La Rana.” He surfaces in connection with Mexican Mafia “tax” collection, the street-level extortion through which the organization extracts payment from drug dealers and other gangs, and was a codefendant in proceedings related to the murders of Robert Acosta and Robert Dunton in San Pedro.⁹

Operation Accountability and the Sisneros Case

The Torrance Police Department ran an 18-month covert investigation called Operation Accountability targeting methamphetamine distribution in the city. It concluded in July 2008 with 208 arrests, 83 search warrants served, and 42 parole and probation searches. Officers seized about 15 pounds of methamphetamine, 52 pounds of cocaine, 40 pounds of marijuana, a quarter-pound of heroin, 107 firearms, nearly $450,000 in cash, and $100,000 in stolen property. Fifteen children were removed from suspected traffickers’ homes.¹⁰

Investigators identified four methamphetamine importation routes from Mexico into Torrance. One ran through Wilmington and fed directly into La Rana and an affiliated group called the Wicked Riders. Police said that route was run by Ricky Sam Sisneros, a 45-year-old with prior convictions for shooting at an inhabited dwelling, assault with a deadly weapon, residential burglary, and drug and weapons possession.¹⁰

Sisneros was arrested on March 14, 2007, after surveillance of a home in the 2300 block of Del Amo Boulevard, in the heart of the old Pueblo neighborhood. A search of the home turned up seven firearms, including assault rifles and pistols, along with ammunition, methamphetamine, and heroin.¹¹ His adult son, Ricky Orlando Sisneros, was arrested at the same time.¹²

At trial, prosecutors described Sisneros as the “shot caller” of La Rana. A first trial in March 2008 ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked 11 to 1 in favor of conviction. At a second trial in August 2008, the jury convicted him on all 10 felony counts, including being an ex-felon in possession of firearms, ammunition, and drugs, and found true the allegation that the crimes were committed for the benefit of a criminal street gang.¹¹

Operation Senor Frog

Even after the Sisneros case, the pipeline kept running, this time allegedly under Senon Grajeda’s direction from behind bars. A follow-up two-year investigation named Operation Senor Frog ended on December 8, 2011, with a coordinated sweep that produced 55 arrests across 28 locations.¹

Police alleged that Senon Grajeda’s Mexican Mafia rank let him oversee a trafficking operation that moved cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and prescription pills from Mexico through California, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania. The organization used postal shipping services to move the drugs. In the December 2011 raids, authorities seized roughly five pounds of cocaine, a pound and a half of methamphetamine, 40 pounds of marijuana, 1,200 OxyContin tablets, 15 guns, and $65,000 in cash.¹

The Torrance Police Department led the investigation in partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and other federal agencies. Senon Grajeda’s brothers Tomas and Daniel, along with his nephew Daniel Tomas Grajeda, were identified as key figures in the organization.¹

How La Rana Fits Into the Larger Gang Structure

Court records describe La Rana as a Sureño gang operating under the umbrella of the Mexican Mafia. The Mexican Mafia functions as a prison-based criminal organization that controls Sureño street gangs, whose members act as foot soldiers on the outside. Full membership requires sponsorship by an existing member and a vote among the organization’s ranks.⁷ Multiple Grajeda family members reached that status, giving a gang based in a small neighborhood outsized reach.

La Rana’s geographic influence extended into the Harbor Area of Los Angeles, particularly Wilmington and San Pedro. Court documents from the Carbajal murder case identify the Westside Wilmas, another Sureño gang in Wilmington, as an overlapping social circle with La Rana, with some individuals tied to both. The Eastside Wilmas, a separate Wilmington gang, also appear in the same records.⁷ In the Torrance methamphetamine cases, police linked La Rana to the Wicked Riders as part of the same distribution route through downtown Torrance.¹⁰

Where Things Stand Now

The physical neighborhood that gave La Rana its name has largely been redeveloped into commercial and industrial space, and the key La Rana figures from the gang’s most active decades are either dead or serving sentences that effectively amount to life in prison. Daniel Tomas Grajeda’s resentencing remains open after the June 2025 appellate reversal, with a new resentencing proceeding ordered.⁸

1
Daily Breeze. Torrance-Based Gang’s 9-State Narcotics Operation Busted
2
Daily Breeze. South Bay History: Immigrants From Mexico Transformed Torrance’s Pueblo Neighborhood
3
Los Angeles Times. Torrance’s El Pueblo Neighborhood
4
Pacific Standard. The End of Gangs
5
Hanford Sentinel. Jury Finds Inmate Guilty of Soliciting for Prison Murder
6
GovInfo. Grajeda v. California, Case 1:06-cv-01709
7
Casemine. People v. Grajeda, B244153
8
FindLaw. People v. Grajeda, B337664
9
FindLaw. People v. Gomez
10
Daily News. Torrance’s Meth Crackdown
11
Whittier Daily News. Torrance Gang Leader Is Found Guilty in Drug, Weapons Case
12
Daily News. Alleged Gang Leader on Trial